Do corals "sleep"

[Danny N]

This may be a dumb question...
I'm new to the coral world and have a green star polyop and a zoanthid. Both appear to be doing well. With my "moonlight" setting on the LED, neither coral gets a chance to close up for the day. Are the supposed to, at some point, close for the night? Just wondering if I should power down a bit more at night...

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

they do what the want but i do believe they have a circadian rhythm. and yes, darkness is good.
then sneak up on the tank with a flashlight. different world.

 

[cowboy]

they do what the want but i do believe they have a circadian rhythm. and yes, darkness is good.
then sneak up on the tank with a flashlight. different world.

Don't forget the red filter I love sneaking up on my tank after lights out it really seems to have more life

 

[Wiz]

Agreed. Complete black is a must in my tank. I even bought some rubbery type fabric and made a curtain for bed time. Lol

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

A break period to photosynthesis is natural, you can see it with some plants too. Though it can extend to other things as well..
There's even been issues recently of humans activity on the shore, with all our lights everywhere, disturbing the natural cycles in the oceans nearby..

http://phys.org/news/2015-04-coastal-pollution-disturbs-marine-animals.html

 

[Liquidangel22]

Blue light goes on @ 5am, add white light @ 6, white light goes off @ 6pm, blue light off @ 7pm, all lights out by 8pm. Everything in the tank seems to really like the rhythm. By the time I go to turn off the "moonlight" at night everything is nice and curled up or retracted, even my clownfish does a "sleepy dance".

I also put a cover around mine so that when I flip on the lights in the room it doesn't disturb the tank. Then for fun, I get a headlamp with a red light on and sit under the cover like a kid in a blanket fort and watch the magic.

 

[Diesel]

Never though about a cover in the 40+ years but I do sing them a Lullaby song before the light go off at 11:30, that is if I didn't fall in sleep myself before them on my comfy couch in the reef room.