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Recirculating Systems. Why do we pump water 24/7

Hi, I've been thinking a lot recently about our general assumption that we need to circulate our systems 24/7. After all plants do not take up nutrients in the dark. So they do not need moving water at night. Which leaves us with the fish. They also slow down at night and release less waste (I do not know this for fact for all fish. Apparently they sleep. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_in_fish included Tilipia.

Recirculating systems why do we pump the system 24/7 ?

Do fish product as much waste at night as day?. (We only feed them in daylight. )

Could we without harm to the system pump during daylight and only aerate the fish tank at night. ?

FYI I'm in tropical Thailand using Tilipia.

Comments advice from Forum much appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff S on August 14, 2015 at 9:44am

A similar thing happened to me when I just used the water circulation for aeration. I would turn the pump off at night to reserve heat and on during the day. Worked ok for a while but eventually the oxygen level gradually dissipated and I almost lost my fish. That's when I went to an air pump and water circulation 24/7.