Shrooms need help

[wildernet]

For the last few weeks I have noticed that my mushrooms and Richordia are not doing so hot. They are all shriveled up. THey are not dying but they are not happy for sure. Also my Richordiar are cupping up and stretching out like they are trying to catch something. I have moved them around the tank and tried different things and not much is helping.
I have a 40 gal breeder tank with two 55w actinic bulbs and a 175w MH bulb.
My Ammonia is about 40ppm and Nitrates are at .5. There are no traces of nitrites in the water. I am running a Euro reef ES8-1 skimmer on the tank so I am not sure why the ammonia is so high. I am not sure what to do from this point. Here are some pictures of what I am looking at.

[Ray1214]

That is awful high for ammonia. I tend to run 10 ppm nitrates and zeros for nitrites and ammonia. I am guessing this must be a cycling tank. I would commence with water changes and try to bring the ammonia down, and if it isn't cycling, I would figure out why my ammonia is so high. (usually overloading a tank and overfeeding are normal causes but a dead fish can cause bad things too)
I have a 40 gal breeder with a 250 MH side and a PC side. I keep shrooms on the PC side since they don't seem to like the metal halides as much.

Ray

[Robbie]

I would start doing some large water changes right away

Robbie

[wildernet]

I made a mistake. The Ammonia is .25 and the nitrates are at 40 ppm.

[Ray1214]

Still seems high for nitrates but reasonable. I would definatly start with a water change but after you move your shrooms, try to put them in a place that the mh are right on them. Mine seem to like the corners of my tank away from the MH. Try something like coral accell. My wife uses it in both our tanks and our mushrooms explode they are so big. Either way give it a couple of days to adjust when you move them.

Ray

[rick and jan]

We had about the same problem. we moved them away from direct light and they perked right up and reproduced.