too much or too little light? Your thoughts please...

Sorry guys and gals I know there are a ton of threads on this, but I can use your help/clarification as many of you know a lot more than I do.



My corals are fading, not bleaching. I posted on a thread titled similarly, but no info as of yet, so I figured I would start a thread here in hopes of more attention.



Here is the scoop:



I am having the issue with my 36" 4 bulb ho fixture on my standard 45 running:



2 x ATI blue +

2 x ATI coral +



Corals are fading to a lighter more pastel color of what they were when I got them (2 months ago), but the growth is there... Here is something funny;



I have 2 smaller sized tanks. One has all oem coralife bulbs in the fixture (30" thus the bulbs) sitting on top of the tank via the fixtures legs sitting ~4 inches above the water line.



The other is the ATI bulbs as you know that are in a canopy that is painted white inside about 9 inches above the water line.



Visually the "ATI" tank is much brighter than the other. (They are 10ft apart)



Example - I had a buddy frag me two pieces of his red orange/red monti cap. One frag went into each tank.



The ATI tanks frag has faded to a light pastel orange/pink and has grown and changed shape radically.



The Coralife tanks frag is the same dark orange color and shape as when I got it and has only encrusted the frag plug a tad on the back side. (I know flow plays a big part)



The 45 is taller than the 36 @ 24" vs 20.75".



The frag in the 45 is placed dead middle and the frag in the 36 is placed at the highest point in my rockscape.



Like I said the 45 is more visually bright, but maybe I will need to borrow a PAR meter for some actual hard facts.



I will say the only coral that has not faded was a orange Setosa frag placed at the bottom in the rockwork... Everything else that has also been in there a while; faded pastel. LPS's are doing the same, but with the addition of transparency.



The 45 is a "cleaner" tank as far as nitrates go, but nothing param, temp, or salinity wise leads me to believe that is a/the issue. (tested last night 12/11)



Salinty - 1.026

Temp - 80 degrees +/- a degree (with lighting throughout the day/night)

Amonia - 0

Nitrites - 0

Nitrates - Always less than 5

PH - 8.0 - 8.3

Calcium - 400 - 420

KH - 8 - 9 (usually a steady 8)

Mag - honestly not sure, but cal and kh are stable and I do not have a kit

P04 - Not sure as I do not have a test kit



( I do traget feed my LPS Coral Frenzy once a week, and alternate dosing my tank with either marnie snow or Seachem's Reef Zoo Plankton usually once or twice a week. I also dose Seachems Reef Plus once a week. )



Hard to believe Im thinking a 4 bulb t5 would be too bright, but I am leaning towards it... (Im probably dead wrong. lol) The tank is only a little over 12" deep thus only a/the 4 bulb.



Both tanks are on controllers with ATO's and the lighting schedules are identical.



1200 - "blue" bulbs on

1300 - "whites" on

1900 - whites off

2000 - blues off / "lunars" on

2100 - Lunars off...



I reduced the time to that schedule months back and experienced more coraline growth with the 36. (This schedule is all the 45 has known). Any questions, ideas, critiques or suggestions, again from people who know a heck of a lot more than me are more than welcomed.



Also, seing how the frags have only been in there 2 months; is 2 months long enough for the corals to adjust to the new lighting or am I jumping the gun? All frags come from a LED lit tank...



I never had this issue before so the reason for the concern. Like i said, everything has nice growth and great polyp extension, just the fading which visually I do not care for as you can imagine.



Thanks in advance for the help!