Star Polyps not extending like before

[Mike87SS]

I have a rock that is covered in star polyps, and have noticed that since I have upgraded the lighting, they have not been extending out as far as they used to. They started under NO lighting, then were under 4X65 CF, and then this past weekend, a lightning bolt fried the ballast in the fixture, so I returned the fixture and upgraded to 4X96 coralife CF's. I am wondering if I should maybe move the star polyps out of the light to make them extend out a little more. Thoughts?

By the way, my tank is unbeleivably bright with these new lights, but I cant open the glass canopy while the light is on top of the tank. Any tricks around this or do I have to take the fixture off the tank everytime I need to get in there?

 

[ClamKnuckle]

if you switch from the glass to egg crate, this will help with airation, keeping the temp down, and depending on how your light are on the tank you could make a peace of egg crate small enough that you could remove and get inside with out moving the lights, or moving them minimally

 

[ClamKnuckle]

double post

 

[ambulocetus]

My GSP did the same thing, closed up for a week until i realised what was wrong, too much light. Try and put him lower down in the tank, or in a small bit of shade, he should come out within an hour if its an area he likes.

 

[fishgillsonefin]

I agrree they need to ajust to your lighting, try moving them down to the substright, then you can slowly move them up.

 

[MT79]

I recently fried the green star polyps growing on the glass of my tank just by replacing my VHO bulbs. They seem to be fairly sensitive to lighting changes. As mentioned, if you can, move them.