polyps and mushrooms and lighting

Hi guys,

Haven't been around here for quite awhile. I see lots of new people
and some of the same. Ya have to take a break from your hobbies once
and awhile.

I bought a rock with quite a few common little brown polyps on it and
one little mushroom about the size of a pencil eraser about two years
ago. I have a 45 bow front gal tank with the double coralife light on
it. It had one 96 watt 10,000K and one 96 watt True Actinic.

Over time the actinic pretty much went dead and the 10,000K is pushing
2 years one and greatly dimmed. After a couple disasters I'd pretty
much lost interest in salt water. The tank hadn't been touched other
than minor maintenance and keeping it full of water.

The polyps were still surviving but not flourishing at all. But all
of a sudden about 5 months ago this little mushroom starts growing
like wild fire. I had forgotten it was even there.

Now the rock is covered with about 20 of this guys, one about the size
of a 50 cent piece. The polyps still aren't doing anything.

I also had a few ricordia on another rock that have pretty much stayed
the same. Just these mushrooms are going crazy.

I have two questions.

Are ricordia and mushrooms the same thing? A salesmen said no but the
web sites seem to use them interchangeably.

Do you think the explosive growth is due to lower lighting or a change
in color? It was much brighter white and now is fairly yellow. What
is good for mushrooms?

Ct Midnite