Tidepool Geek, I'm starting to see what you are talking about. I was locked onto the fuzz on the larger stalks. When I looked at the other stuff, at original resolution
http://johne.smugmug.com/Underwater/Yaq ... 7&lb=1&s=O I was amazed. I was so locked onto those thick stalks that I didn't bother looking elsewhere.
I see the tubes I think you are looking at. These are in clear-ish tubes amid all the small clutter I assumed was hydroids.
In fact, now that I look at the original resolution I see a zoo of stuff. There is a lot going on in this picture, more than I saw before.
The fuzz on the stalks, I'm starting to think it is an encrusting bryozoan. It could even be "Tubeworm Fuzz". Very tiny lopophores.
Also in this pic are some solitary hydroids that look a lot like the Solitary Pink Mouthed Hydroid. I took a pic of one that was separate from all this mess:
http://johne.smugmug.com/Underwater/Yaq ... 7&lb=1&s=O
Some of the hydroid-like stuff is branched and often have lopophores irregularly. A bryozoan?
I think I need to come back to this patch and take more care, better photos, better notes. At the time I took this pic I just thought it was a patch of dead stalks and hydroids.