Yellow polyps not opening

[gas4544]

I think I remember a post or two on this subject, but I couldn't find them by searching. Anyway, my colonial yellow polyps haven't opened for, well, at least a month. Last night's water test parameters didn't show anything unusual, except that my quick-dip nitrate test kit has been lying to me. Now that the main tank is caulerpa free, the nitrate levels have crept up to about 7ppm. I discovered that with my back-up test kit.
Let's see, from memory (I keep a log):
temp: 80 degrees
sg: 1.0245, has dropped a little lately
pH: been running around 8.20, measure with meter
alkalinity: 12.5 dKH, increase from last week
calcium: 340 ppm, also dropped a little

A couple of months ago, I battled hair algae and lost some of my yelow polyps to being overgrown by hair algae. I carefully picked the algae off with tweezers and had to remove some polyps too. Hair algae is gone. So is the cyanobacteria that followed. That goofy modified SeaClone is now in the box in the basement where it belongs. My Remora Pro is doing a wonderful job now.
I have moved the yellow polyps colonies to a couple of different spots in the tank. The have received differing amounts of current and still do not open up like they used to. Lighting is 175W MH. The polyps are at the bottom of a 75 gallon tank.
When they opened up before, I would feed them. Its kind of hard to feed the little guys when they do not open up. Any suggestions on how to get them to open up again? Should I try moving some of them to my 10 gallon nursery tank with 65W of LOA PC lighting? I just want happy polyps.

[signu459]

Weird for yellow polyps? I have Yellow polyps that are sprading all over my tank, and I do nothing at all for them. My only suggestion is to dose Iodine. This is a touchy subject, as I am sure you may already know. However there are those that say that iodine will help open up polyps. I don't think there are any studies to prove it but it is worth a try. I dose iodine with no negative effect I am aware of and my yellows are always open.

Good luck, keep us posted!

[DD]

I had zoanthiad polyps on a rock that would not open.they finally opened when i got a handle on my phosphates.In 2 days they were back to normal after using a P04 remover.P04 went from .25 t0 less than .03.The fact you had an algae problem could mean a high p04 level.Hope this helps you.

[Ironreef]

7pmm nitrate isn't bad. Don't know why they aren't opening but po4 could be a prob??? The ones you gave to mushroomboy are doing great he gave me some and they seem happy. The good thing about trading is you know where to go when things go bad and you need more.

[gas4544]

I'll run a test for phosphate today. One of the measures I used to get rid of the cyanobacteria (besides siphoning it out, using Ruby Reef Erase, leaving the lights out for a day, and upgrading my skimmer) was to use PO4 minus a couple of times. Maybe its just time for a ten gallon water change.
Ironreef, I'm glad that the polyps you and Mushroom Boy have are doing well.