Noob To Planted Tank.

[PRW1988]

Well, I've been keeping fish for 10years and I've never tried a simple and nice community tank planted. So I've decided to. But I was wondering if leaving the lights on for 24hours will be benificial at all. I left the lights on last night and they still seem fine to me. But yeah, will it harm the plants having 24hours of light?

 

[Bigpig]

Well, I've been keeping fish for 10years and I've never tried a simple and nice community tank planted. So I've decided to. But I was wondering if leaving the lights on for 24hours will be benificial at all. I left the lights on last night and they still seem fine to me. But yeah, will it harm the plants having 24hours of light?

I believe so. The need time to rest or something to complete a cycle or something. Not to mention you elec bill.

Am sure one of the experts will be along shortly to explain more

 

[aaronnorth]

At the end of the day the plant rests when it has had enough so there is no point. After 12 hours it is highly unlikely that the plant will do anymore so you may as well turn the lights out.

 

[three-fingers]

Would most likely mess up all the fishes internal body clocks too .

 

[PRW1988]

Wow never knew lights could do such damage lol. But if I do leave them on will the plants just shut off their cycles and restart them even with the extra light?

 

[three-fingers]

Yep, most plants anyway, I would imagine different species have different limits depending on how many hours of lighting they can get in nature.

Algae, I believe however, has less complex systems going on within it's cells and may benefit from the extra hours of light.

 

[grasshopper_green]

you're encouraging algae by leaving the lights on all the time.

the plants probably won't be harmed, but remember, almost all organisms (including us) as supposed to experience light/dark cycles.

My fish are definitely in tune with these daily cycles and I'm sure they'd be quite stressed if the lights never went off.