Why do shrooms shrink?

[wojo]

he guys,
i have green hairy and some red shrooms and it seems like they are shrunk for most of the day, why woudl that be?

all the params are ok, i will post some details little later.

thanks

[Travis L. Stevens]

I'll wait for details, but in the mean time I'll ask a few questions. How new are they to your tank? How old are your bulbs? What type of lighting do you have? How high/low are they in the tank? Do they stay shrunk all day or only during certain times? Have you ever seen them fully open? Do they ever spill out their mesenterial filaments (guts)?

[wojo]

ok here are the params:

sg: 1.027
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
Alk: ~10 dKH
Calcium: 450 ppm
Mag: 1400
Temp: 80-82F
Ph: 8.3

All tests done with Salifert kits.

- the shrooms are there since 2 years ago
- i just bought new bulbs 12k reeflux, i had no name bulbs before and shrooms looked the same
- i run 2 * 250MH 12k reeflux (1pm - 8pm) and 2 * 110 VHOs (7am-10pm)
- the shrooms are on the sand bed, the red ones are in shadow, not under direct light, greens are direct light
- sometimes they do look good and fully open, the other day they are shrunk

my theory is that i might have too much light for the shrooms but i am not sure...

thanks for your help

[wojo]

i should probably mention that due to the canopy design the lights are only like 3-4 inches from the water surface... not sure if it matters but it could

[Travis L. Stevens]

- i just bought new bulbs 12k reeflux, i had no name bulbs before and shrooms looked the same
You don't have too much light for the mushrooms, but new bulbs are drastically more intense than old, burnt in ones. You may have noticed a difference in brightness after you added these, did you not? Your best bet is to either reduce the photo period or find some way to shade the entire tank until everything gets acclimated to the new lights. You could use something like window screen over the tank to help block some light out until the tank is used to it.

[wojo]

well i had 14k bulbs before, same wattage, i can see that the 12k are little more brighter but not that much. also, the shrooms did not change their behavior after i put in the new bulbs in...

[wojo]

if it help my bubble coral is also this way most of the time, it is also sitting on the bottom of a tank

[wojo]

i took a picture of this right now, the actinics are the only lights on right now, they have been on for 3 hours now and the shrooms look like this:

reds:
http://picasaweb.google.com/WojoWietecha/Corals/photo?authkey=WiQrTSAqBCA#5126031666033016946

greens:
http://picasaweb.google.com/WojoWietecha/Corals/photo?authkey=WiQrTSAqBCA#5126031678917918850