wrong lighting?

[pjf220]

I've got a 175l tank, fairly heavily planted and accompanied by some Blue Tetra and some Rams. The plants are looking great, the fish are healthy, though still getting the CO2 balance right. However, one aspect of the tank bugs me. Lights off, the Tetra have lovely blue stripes, the Rams have great yellow and blue coloured bodies. However, lights come on and it all goes a bit wrong. The lights just lose the beautiful colours, the Tetra look a more bland greyish purple and the Rams very plain, bar one which seems to have very strong colours. I've had the Tetra 3 weeks and the Rams 2 weeks, I'm aware the fish can get stronger colours as they settle in due to being farmed.

So, down to business. The lighting I have is a Hagen Glo luminaire with twin T5's 54w. After reading up on here, I went for one 840 and one 880 to give the plants the red and blue spectrum. As I say, the plants look very healthy and growing well. I should also point out that I have bog wood that is still giving the water a yellowish tinge (I forget the technical term right now). Have I got something wrong, my mate has a simliar set up, same lighting and his cardinals, rams angels look great under the lighting.

I'm also wondering what other options I have in respect the lights on/off. Currently run by a timer, the lights just flick on and off and the Tetra tend to dart about when the lights go out. Any ideas how I can make this a more gentle process for them?

 

[Ajm200]

I have rams and cardinals under 2 x growlux and 2 x 880s. Their colours are strong under these bulbs although when all 4 are on the rams colours seem to fade as the sparkly purple is more evident although the pinks, yellows and oranges are still visible. The cardinals colours are strong under all lights but they are in a big shoal.

My rams mixed ages. Their colours do improve with age. When I first got them they had hardly any colour, just strong black markings but they were very small and took a while to settle down. The older ones have really strong colours, have paired off and are in breeding condition. The others are much younger and although their colours are weaker, all colours are visible.

You'll know when the rams have settled in as the will stop hanging out around the filter and plants and happily swim in the open. They will also swim to the front glass when they see you as they quickly learn who feeds them.

I would post photos but I only have Internet access via an iPod at the mo.