Lighting in growing out tank

[bigmatt]

Afternoon all ...
Lovin' the site - as a newcomer to aquariums as a whole and planted tanks specifically it's sending my (normally flat to slightly downward leaning) learning curve through the roof!
Question is - i have a spare 4x1x1 tank that i acquired sitting in my garage with 72w (2 x 36w t8) above it. As it's rpesently not doing a great deal i was going to use it as a growing out tank for some Riccia and for establishing some Java moss on a piece of driftwood that will form the centrepiece of my 60l aquascape. As there will be no livestock in this tank am i able to leave the lights on 24hrs a day to establish stronger growth, or would the plants be best with a rest period. I intend to stick a spare powerhead and internal filter in the tank to maximise flow and, in the absence of CO2, dose fairly heavily with liquid carbon and TPN+.
I was also wondering if it'd be best to maximise the light in the tank by wrapping in reflective material. This would also act as a bit of an energy saver as it doubles as insulation but would also act as a massive reflector, hopefully bringing all the light back to the plant.
Your thoughts would be very much appreciated!
Matt

 

[BAE]

i would be sure for most of it but the light thing i would say needs to be turned off for a bit as i think the plants take c02 in during the day then release air at night so need time to release

 

[Garuf]

Plants release co2 at night. Personally, depending on plant I would just use the tank as a super humid growing cabinet rather than as a tank, the two plants you mention both grow quickest when grown emerse, riccia with being a floater grows extremely quickly and needs very little water, javamoss will grow in just about anything so as long as it's wet all over it'd be fine. Devin recently posted a picture of the less hardy christmas moss that had been grown on a raft in one of his "riparium" setups and it looked to have grown very quickly indeed. Plants by and large need a rest period so I'd have the lights on for 12 off for 12 and so on. It depends on your aims but I think that or using the tank as a ebb and flow system which I've heard get by far the best results for the types of plants we grow.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Depends on the plant, but a lot don't thrive on 24 hours light, 16 hours is usually regarded as a "long day".
cheers Darrel

 

[ceg4048]

Yep,
8 to 10 hours or so and the plants start closing up shop. Having lights on 24/7 is a famous recipe for algae. :silent:

A bit of clarification: CO2 is released all the time. Plant cells burn sugar, just like our cells. The a process called "Glycolysis". This process recoups the energy that was produced and stored as starch. When this energy is consumed by the cell the end product is CO2, which is "exhaled". In this way plants are always respiring, i.e. using oxygen to burn sugar.

During photosynthesis water is split into H+ and O2.
Generally, for healthy plants, more O2 is produced by photosynthesis than is consumed by aerobic respiration.
Typically, more CO2 is consumed by photosynthesis than is released by glycolysis.

So that during the day, the net result of glycolysis (sugar consumption) + photosynthesis (sugar production) is an O2 output and a CO2 input.

During the night, since sugar production due to photosynthesis is halted, the balance shifts so that there is a net O2 input and a net CO2 output.

Technically therefore, it's not accurate to say that plants only exhale CO2 at night or that they only inhale Oxygen at night, it happens all the time.

Cheers,