Poor Polyp Extension

[Aquattro]

Do they extend at all when you feed the tank? I never figured out why my old tank was like that either, but with the new tank, every coral is extended full time. I believe it's water quality parameters we can't/don't measure, maybe disolved organic compounds. Is your skimmer pulling lots of crap? My collection cup gets about 2 inches of gunk every week, and that's with 4 fish, minimal feeding and a bare bottom. You should probably get at least that much in the skimmer.
Other things might be flow, I have tons of flow this time around. Lighting I don't think would contibute, but not sure how to verify that. My temp is stable now, maybe that helps?