Shut Return off when feeding?

[huskerreefatl]

As I was looking at my return splashing issue after restarting my return pump, JennM commented, "Why shut down the return when feeding?" So it got me to thinking, do folks? I have in the past because I want the minimize the food going into the overflow. What do other folks do?

 

[bkostuch]

I turn off my powerheads and feed in the opposite corner of the overflow. Fish usually go to town and eat everything prior to it drifting back to the overflow or settling.

 

[axio]

I feel like this is going to entirely depend on the system and water flow. As well as what you are trying to feed.

For our fish only tanks we usually don't bother turning anything off. The flow actually helps get the food spread out a bit so it isn't just the dominate fish in the tank sucking it down.

If you are trying to feed a reef tank it can be a good idea to turn off at least the circulation pumps. Or when spot feeding it's obviously a good idea to turn them off as well.

And then sometimes you get that perfect flow pattern in the tank where it just beautifuly spreads the food out for you across all your corals and fish and there is no need to turn anything off even in a reef tank setting.

 

[dball711]

huskerreefatl;1063622 wrote: So it got me to thinking, do folks? I have in the past because I want the minimize the food going into the overflow.

My experience is if food is making it to the overflow then I am feeding too much. As others have mentioned is will also depend on the flow, in my tanks there is enough flow that whatever I put in does not go directly to the overflow. Hope that helps!

 

[catgirl29]

We talked about this at the holiday party. I shut off my powerheads but not my return pump. When I shut off my return, a good 3 inches of water drains into my sump, causing my skimmer to overflow if I forget. Turning everything back on is a sequential process. Too much work and I don't see food going into the overflow anyway (I typically feed frozen - LRS Reef Frenzy) with occasional pellets.

 

[huskerreefatl]

aXio;1063626 wrote: I feel like this is going to entirely depend on the system and water flow. As well as what you are trying to feed.

For our fish only tanks we usually don't bother turning anything off. The flow actually helps get the food spread out a bit so it isn't just the dominate fish in the tank sucking it down.

If you are trying to feed a reef tank it can be a good idea to turn off at least the circulation pumps. Or when spot feeding it's obviously a good idea to turn them off as well.

And then sometimes you get that perfect flow pattern in the tank where it just beautifuly spreads the food out for you across all your corals and fish and there is no need to turn anything off even in a reef tank setting.

My logic has been that since I have a mixed reef tank, feed Rod's original, and want it to float around for the corals, I should shut it all down. I have it on a controller so I just hit standby and it shuts down for 30 minutes. Then the powerhead comes back on 10 minutes later to circulate anything that fell to the bottom and the skimmer turns back on 3 minutes after the return comes back on to ensure that it doesn't overflow. It works and I am getting good growth with limited spot feeding but I wonder if I am trying to make too much work for myself.

 

[huskerreefatl]

Catgirl29;1063628 wrote: We talked about this at the holiday party. I shut off my powerheads but not my return pump. When I shut off my return, a good 3 inches of water drains into my sump, causing my skimmer to overflow if I forget. Turning everything back on is a sequential process. Too much work and I don't see food going into the overflow anyway (I typically feed frozen - LRS Reef Frenzy) with occasional pellets.

I wish that I could have gone to the party...but I had a kid event.

Since mine is on a controller, it is just a push of the button but since I have a herbie overflow in my corner with the main drain pipe 6 inches below the emergency, it does drain down that much and makes a large slurping sounds as it reaches the main drain pipe. No biggey, but when the system does come back on, it fills up close to the top of the weir before the siphon kicks in and that scares me a bit. So today I fed with the return on and the MP40 in feed mode (but I set the feed mode to the lowest setting) and it seemed to work fine. I will try it for a bit to see how well it works. If I get the same fish and coral consumption, I would rather leave it running.

 

[huskerreefatl]

Catgirl29;1063628 wrote: We talked about this at the holiday party. I shut off my powerheads but not my return pump. When I shut off my return, a good 3 inches of water drains into my sump, causing my skimmer to overflow if I forget. Turning everything back on is a sequential process. Too much work and I don't see food going into the overflow anyway (I typically feed frozen - LRS Reef Frenzy) with occasional pellets.

Oh, and to add, I put a check valve on my return so basically no water comes back to my sump via the return line.

 

[enderg60]

Nope, I leave full flow on during feedings. The anthias dont like food that doesnt move. I have watched them stare at food with the pumps off, then as soon as they come on the go after the food.

 

[axio]

huskerreefatl;1063629 wrote: My logic has been that since I have a mixed reef tank, feed Rod's original, and want it to float around for the corals, I should shut it all down. I have it on a controller so I just hit standby and it shuts down for 30 minutes. Then the powerhead comes back on 10 minutes later to circulate anything that fell to the bottom and the skimmer turns back on 3 minutes after the return comes back on to ensure that it doesn't overflow. It works and I am getting good growth with limited spot feeding but I wonder if I am trying to make too much work for myself.

Too much work is a relative term in this hobby =) You will always find something else to over complicate or work on. Either way if it's working for you I don't see anything wrong with what you are doing. You have already taken care of the biggest issue with shutting the main system pump down... and that is the skimmer possibly overflowing and dumping skimate back into your system. You have timed it properly and used the check valve to prevent that it... so I see no issues.

Jakub

 

[thanhreef]

it depends on which foods. If they are pellets or flakes, powerheads are turn down via controller. If it is frozen food like Rod's Food or Reef Frenzy, I leave full flow on and Fishes and corals love it

 

[lsu_fishfan]

When feeding fish, I leave everything on. But when I target feed coral, I turn all of them off.

 

[camellia]

LSU_fishFan;1063698 wrote: When feeding fish, I leave everything on. But when I target feed coral, I turn all of them off.

+1
Ditto

 

[shrimpy brains]

I have a mix of food(larger and smaller) fish and coral food. I want it to flow to everyone, so I leave everything on. I also have some CUC in my refugium to eat whatever goes through the overflow!

 

[huskerreefatl]

Shrimpy Brains;1063716 wrote: I have a mix of food(larger and smaller) fish and coral food. I want it to flow to everyone, so I leave everything on. I also have some CUC in my refugium to eat whatever goes through the overflow!

So no filter sock?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

 

[shrimpy brains]

No filter sock! That would be a reason to turn off pumps, as I imagine, it would clog up quickly.

 

[catgirl29]

Wow - look at that. As of now, 20 who don't and 4 who do. Certainly thought it would be more for the yes column. Since it really never crossed my mind to turn off the return pump and I doubted myself when I heard that some people do it, it kind of eases the worry a little.

 

[lt_smash]

I turn off my return pump, but leave power heads on. I press one button on my Apex, everything turns off for 10 minutes, then sequentially turns back on.

When the main pump stops, my fish know its feeding time and come out to feed. Even the fish that are shy come right out in the open when my return pump goes off.

Soon as the main pump goes back on, back to hiding.

 

[ghbrewer]

I have an Apex controlled Waveline DC pump that turns down to ~10-15% flow during feed mode (actually 5 min. b4, then ramps back up to 60% 10 min. after), so that it minimizes the amount of food that makes it into the overflow and therefore the filter socks. It's nice not having the pump come on and blow a bunch of bubbles and make a bunch of noise.

I leave my vortechs on to keep the food suspended in the water column.

The only drawback to the waveline DC pump is that the Apex cannot turn it off through the variable speed ports. It can only take it to the lowest setting on the pump controller. If I want it to turn off using the Apex, I have to turn off the plug on the EB8 that it is plugged into. Really a minor thing, just hate having to use both a variable speed port and an outlet on my EB-8 to control the pump.

I am looking forward to the release of the new pump by Neptune, I am sure it will have all sorts of control and will free up my VS post and an outlet...

 

[crew]

ghbrewer;1063777 wrote: I have an Apex controlled Waveline DC pump that turns down to ~10-15% flow during feed mode

This is also what I do. I voted yes as it's the closest to my actual method.