Too much light?

[stratelecaster]

Hello all,

I do understand that there should be a natural replication of day and night in aquariums but, is there anything hamful about 24 hours of light for an extended period of time with American cichlids?

Yes, algae can become a problem if not scrubbed periodically but as long as good water quality is maintained, does anyone forsee any problems?

Thanks in advance for all replys

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

the biggest concern is that fish cannot sleep without very dim light because they lack eyelids and so need darkness (or close enough to) to sleep properly.


with perpetual light you will see a steady decline in your fishes health and activity and they may even get sick.

 

[Aquanero]

It is not good to keep the lights on 24hrs a day for both the physiological and norological well being of the fish. They need to sleep.

 

[Natalie]

Yep, they need darkness to sleep just like birds, mammals, reptiles. Without it their health will rapidly decline.

 

[stratelecaster]

Thanks all,

I've been away from my tank for a week and was informed the lights were on the whole time I was away.

The fish still looked great upon my return, actually, they seemed to have grown a bit. I've never done anything like this intentionally but, I was just curious about any ill effects it may have caused.

Thanks again

 

[Sab_Fan]

I did this once with a tank I had at work . . . it was on a timer, but the switch was inadvertently set to over-ride the timer, so it was on 24/7 . . . I eventually figured it out, and while I didn't get much algae, all of my plants got washed-out, and the betta I had just looked like hell . . . it was really puzzling me what the problem was, until I figured out it was the light situation

 

[Sarah88]

yeah i think it just being on accidentally for a week while you were away wont have nay long term affects i mean its not good of course but there wont be any continuing affects as long as they now have some periods of darkness again, its definitely better to have the lights off the entire time though than being on the whole time (unless you have plants or something of course)