Sump light on 24/7?

[mark]

Originally Posted by Ryan

I am glad your showing good growth but growth doesnt mean photosynthesis which is what takes out nutrients.

well with a continued increase in mass that I keep throwing the stuff out, I'll assume it's removing something from the water column.

[Ryan]

I refer you to my previous post.

[Albertan22]

Photosynthesis is acutally a simple equation involving conversion of carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and a carbohydrate. It doesn't really have anything to with nutrient removal. If anything, the processes of cell division and other growth functions would be what's pulling and binding up nutrients from the water.

It's also important to realize that our macroalgaes only bind up nutrients, not use them up. So it's important that we see good growth and harvest/remove some of the biomass from our sumps from time to time or we're actually not accomplishing anything by keeping the stuff alive.

Long story short, if you're seeing good growth keeping the lights on, I wouldn't see a problem with it as long as there isn't any risks with something like Caulerpa going sexual on you and poluting your tank; however, I was always under the impression that keeping the lights on 24/7 was the way to keep Caulerpa from going sexual, not the cause of it.