# Do plants NEED a period of darkness at night?



## cgcaver (Jul 10, 2005)

I was just curious if plants really _need_ a period of darkness every night. I am up late at night many nights due to work/baby, and I enjoy watching my tank, so I'd really like the lights on ;(

Is indirect sunlight only (the room is not all that well lit in the daytime), with no lighting on the tank enough darkness to suffice?

I have timers on my lights, so, what would be a good light regimen for my tank? What length and hours should I run that would also allow me to enjoy my tank till about 4am at night? Is that even possibly while still being healthy for my tank?

P.S. I forgot to mention that I have the ability to run 1.75wpg, 2wpg, or combined for 3.75wpg. I dont remember the exact Kelvin rating, but one of the bulbs is on the "green" side of the scale, the other is more on the "red" side.


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## freshreef (May 14, 2004)

u can light your tank at night instead of in day time. 
dont "play" with the "day hours" - you gonna end with algae!
another choice is using a "moon light" light - 8w or so just to light it at nights


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## 247Plants (Mar 23, 2006)

Ya what he said....

Plants only go through a photosynthetic period of between 8-10 hours depending on the plant.....Algae can photosynthesize(sp?) 24 hours a day!


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Yeah, they need some dark time. You might have to do some compromising with our timer say on at 3PM and off at 1AM. You can actually see some stem plants start to close up close to the shut off time. My L. aromatica and R. rotundafolia would do this.


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## slickwillislim (Oct 11, 2005)

I left a tank on for 72 hrs actually i think it was four days so 96 hrs straight and I came home to a wall of algae on the front glass. Luckily it was only four days not a week or more. I read an article that plant growth can be increased by interupting its resting time. Dont quote me on that. I will try to find where I read that. 

I like the moonlight idea since you see a different perspective of your aquarium, especially if you have nocturnally active fish.


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## Shaggathai (Apr 18, 2006)

My tank in the living room is in a pretty dark area, the tank only gets enough ambient light to be able to make out the fish and plants. I have the main lights turn on at 3pm and off at 3:30am. I have moonlights, and while it's a neat effect (I have them on all the time), I've enjoyed it much more being able to really see the tank during the hours I'm up and around.


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