Do corals have a biological clock?

[FrugalReefer]

First of all, please don't bash me if this is a dumb question, so here goes. Recently, I've noticed very slight bleaching on the top of my birds nest. It's always grown at a good steady pace getting around 400 PAR with good flow. I'm in the school of thought to not make drastic large changes when seeing something wrong in my tank so to combat this I've started feeding a little more while reducing my full spectrum photoperiod by an hour and seeing how it goes over time. This got me thinking, are my corals able to sense the reduced full spectrum photoperiod and have to adjust because of this? TIA

 

[Salty_Northerner]

There is no dumb question in this community! We're all here to learn and give advice.

Yes I believe the coral can sense the change because think about it this way. During seasonal changes corals will get less light but they are highly adaptable especially in your reef aquarium.

Your 400 par at your bird's nest Coral might be a lot higher now as it's growing upwards. For all your water parameters in check?

 

[brandon429]

Also bring down intensity too, simulate cloudy/ less intense lighting days as well. You were right starting off with lighting reduction for sure. The upping of feed input and the reducing of light power and duration is right on track with how we do bleach prevention

*someone on here was smart previously by mentioning where they add topoff water matters, that was bleaching my corals too in my pico independent from the other variables. I had to change my entry point for the topoff water now that my whole upper rim of the tank is sps

 

[bushdoc]

It is much easier and very often irreversible to damage corals by providing to much light. Technically 400 PAR is what you would keep your seriatopora at, but some types( apparently green ones) thrive better at moderate light.
I would decrese PAR as fullinfussion suggested, wait few weeks and ramp it up over 4-6 weeks.

 

[FrugalReefer]

There is no dumb question in this community! We're all here to learn and give advice.

Yes I believe the coral can sense the change because think about it this way. During seasonal changes corals will get less light but they are highly adaptable especially in your reef aquarium.

Your 400 par at your bird's nest Coral might be a lot higher now as it's growing upwards. For all your water parameters in check?

Temp: 78-80
Salinity: 1.025
NO3: 0-2
PO4: 0.03
Cal: 440
Mag: 1350
Alk: 8-9
pH: 7.8-8.3

My nutrients are low I know. I feed my fish twice a day and corals every other day.