Lights off = more growth

Bk718

Bk718

No Monkey Business
Nov 29, 2007
7,148
1
60
Brooklyn, NY
Today something strange happened in my tank. Since I had been running pressurized co2 for exactly a week now, my plants have been enjoying it, pearling non stop and growing few inches each day..
Normally my photo period on my 55g is from 12 to 12. And its like that for every day of the week except tuesday which is from 8:30pm-2am.. I do not have a timer so i do everything manually
Well today upon arriving home and turning on the lights (been off for almost 21hrs) i noticed that alot of plants looked alot bigger/taller compared to the night before.. In fact my sunset/green hygro grew 3-4" taller just with the lights being out, rotalas an extra inch and foreground cover seemed to spread even more.

I know they say that plants like a rest period but can random increases in the rest be more benefitial to the plants?
ei: not doing the constant 12 to 12 photoperiod day after day after day..
 
Do the plants look as full as before? Often plants in insufficient light will grow towards whatever light source is available, but this growth usually leaves them looking scraggly rather than full. This may be what happened during the lengthy dark period.
 
Notophthalmus said:
Do the plants look as full as before? Often plants in insufficient light will grow towards whatever light source is available, but this growth usually leaves them looking scraggly rather than full. This may be what happened during the lengthy dark period.
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The new leaves are pointing up as if they are about to open up. The growth looks normal.
Prior to this i had the window blinds open so it would get some indirect sunlight but now that i am trying to slow down some algae growth i completely closed the blinds making the room as dark as it can be. So not sure whats up. Will see how the plants respond now that i have the light on.
 
Yo BK, long time no see! Wow, that's a lot of growth in just one day! I'm curious about the reasoning behind this as well. I've noticed when the lights are off for longer than normal, I sometimes see some extra growth as well.
 
Cory Keeper said:
My crypts will do that all the time, If I leave the lights on any longer than 10hrs and they will kinda fan out. If I leave the lights off for a while they will start pointing upwards, normal me thinks.
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yee but hee its not really just pointing.. i used to get plant pointing/twisting towards the window light when normal light was off.. Here im having the actual stem of the plant grow a few inches when lights are off.
 
StereoKills said:
Yo BK, long time no see! Wow, that's a lot of growth in just one day! I'm curious about the reasoning behind this as well. I've noticed when the lights are off for longer than normal, I sometimes see some extra growth as well.
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Whats going on !! lol finally get free time??

Ill post this on another board see what they think.. and hope we all can come to some conclusion.
 
It's a matter of photosynthesis. If you all remember biology, plants in the dark use more CO2 than during day, but some of the energy received during the day is conserved in the plants cells as photons. So when you have a powerful light, this is stored in your plant for quite a few hours, and since its injected CO2 and the plants use more CO2 in the dark it has the perfect conditions to grow. Now, I'm not saying you don't need light or that you must leave 21 hr. periods so your plants grow even more (I cannot assure you that) but I gave you the scientific reason of why this happens. Hope it is clear.
 
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