A few questions, not so new but...

I know this may be a dumb question and may have been answered sometime at least once but;

1.Do zoanthids and polyps on live rock randomly open an close as they feel like or does this indicate poor water quality and/or poor lighting?

2.Do they usually close up upon lights out?

3.Is a moon light's purpose to keep em open during the night?

 

My zoas and other polyps open and close if something touches them or bothers them. Otherwise, they're always open when the lights are on. If a fish swims by and disturbs them, they may close (mainly one of the gobys).

They always close at night.

I have 8 blue moons and the tank is dimly lit at night, but they always close about 30 minutes after the lights are off. They look awesome in the blue LED lighting though, before they close up to "sleep" - moonlights are more for our benefit to see what goes on under cover of darkness

 

Thanks, that clears up a lot in my head lol. However, even when my lights are on, some of my zoa's close up and don't re-open till a couple hours after. I only have one fish in there with em. Could they be staying closed as a result of my high water movement?

 

Depends on the polyp, I suppose. What about crabs or snails? Mine get bumped by them and close up sometimes. If a crab or snail camps out next to the polyp they usually stay closed.

My tank has some pretty high flow and some of my zoas are directly in the path of a flow accelerator. They don't seem to care. How new are the frags? One frag of dragon eyes I got took a week to open and stay opened. Some polyps when they get cranky stay closed for a few minutes, but rarely an hour. If the flow is really intense, it may affect them, maybe some sand is getting blown into them?

 

Open up

yeah I'd say it could mean bad water, too much light, too close to something they don't like, after seeing a clown fish for hours on end going around and making sure all corals were closed i was amazed. So anything is possible. IMO

 

I don't have any snails and crabs right now. Crabs got wiped out when my tank crashed a couple weeks ago.
They aren't exactly frags, they're about 5-10 pound rocks covered in zoas. I haven't been able to get an accurate I.D. on em. I think I may post pics of the rebuild if I can find the cable for my camera.
My zoas opened within an hour of bringing them home but the polyps on the live rock haven't opened for weeks. they don't have any white residue on em and they don't smell funny so I think they're still alive. I have to get my halides up and running quickly and hope they open up.
The sand blowing into em could be possible. I'll try moving the powerheads around to see if that helps.
Thanks

 

I'm pretty sure my water is fine but I want to have it tested from another source just to make sure.
It's definitely not too much light lol... I'm ashamed at the lighting I'm using. Its regular florescent bulbs at 120watts on an 18 inches deep tank.
That's a funny thing to witness. Clowns can be a handful sometimes