orange Ricordea florida: VHO vs 250 MH

[acroporas]

3 years ago i collected some bright orange Ricordea florida in the florida keys. I collected them on the first few days of a month long vacacion. I had no choice but to keep them in a bucket in the shade. By the time i got them to my aquarium they were white. They survived but didnt return to their origional colour. They were in the top of 55 gallon aquarium lighted by 3x110 watt VHO. 2 weeks ago i moved them into a 75 gallon aquarium lit by 2x250 MH. I put most of the pollips very near the surface right under the black plastic center brace however 3 polips are directly under the light. There colour has improved drastically, they are almost back to the colour they were when i found them.

Colour Under VHO
http://www.umsis.miami.edu/~wheaton/ORICVHO.jpg

Colour Under 250MH
http://www.umsis.miami.edu/~wheaton/ORICMH.jpg

Colour After two weeks of 250MH
http://www.umsis.miami.edu/~wheaton/DSC00826-2.jpg

[absolut]

Looks nice, I'm surprised they lasted a month in a bucket w/out light or circulation. Why did you not just collect them @ the end of the trip?

[acroporas]

I doubt that i could have found them again. But really i dont think that it would have helped. After seeing how they have reacted to the new lights i think they would have changed to the way they looked under the VHO anyway.

[Mantis]

What kind of envirnment were those found in, I have been diving the keys for years and have never seen any Ricordea. Just curious.

[acroporas]

They came from 50 ft of water.

[acroporas]

Update
It has been another week and they have become even more brillant orange.

http://www.umsis.miami.edu/~wheaton/DSC00899-2.jpg

[slowjo]

When you had them under the VHO's, did they still grow and look healthy?
I ordered some online, and I'm hoping they don't lose their color under my PC's!:(

[acroporas]

My orange Ricordea florida's looked very healty under the VHO, but they did not really grow. They started off 1 inch and now 3 years later are 1.5 inches. I have some greens in the same tank that in that same time trippled in size and each split once. I found the greens in 15 ft of water and the oranges in 50 ft so i was very surprised that the greens did better under low light.