What would happen to plants if they had light on them 24/7 ? I understand that they use co2 during the day and oxygen at night.. or at least thats what the books tell me. What would happen if by having light on them all the time they would continue to just take up co2 ? Would it kill them just as quickly as no light at all would ? ( i understand that this would depend on the plant )
Large amounts of vegetative growth on the plants and a large amount of algae growth as well.
Plants use up oxygen and product carbon dioxide 24 hours a day from their metabolic processes. When they have light the photosynthetic processes use up much more carbon dioxide than the plants metabolic processes produce. This means they have to absorb more carbon dioxide from the environment and realease oxygen. In darkness the photosynthetic pathways shut down but the metabolic ones keep on chugging at the same rate. This means the plants have to take oxygen from the environment and produce carbon dioxide.
When you apply 24 hour lighting to the plant they stay in active photosyntheses. This is not harmful to them except for hormonal triggers. Events like flowering are triggered by light intensity and daylength. Usually what happens is the plants grow completely vegetatively.
i can never find the link but tom barr or rex grigg has said something about this before. i might be getting it all wrong its been a while i am sorry. basically plants need a resting period. among the problems with algae and what not.
Thanks for the replies. Got me wondering as I hadnt been able to get a timer yet and my lights are on 14 to 16 hours a day (as im not home) and cant keep my vals from melting. I was wondering if it was detrimental to them. I guess not
I would not do it. 10-12 hours of light per day should be plenty sufficient. Longer light hours is NOT a substitute for low light/ wattage conditions. Generally, I use about 3W per gallon, and that has always been very good for most plants.
Constant light, as has been pointed out will not allow any resting period for the plants, and will cause lots of algae blooms. Also, CO2 tends to build up more at night when its dark (if you use CO2) and the plants will use it during their active light hours during the day.
Also, not to mention, your fish need dark time. Fish do not have eyelids and cannot close their eyes, and really cannot "sleep" or "rest" in constant light. They need dark periods of about 8-10 hours as well. Just my .02
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