feeding ?

[james1990]

I have been wondering what everyone else does regarding feeding and maintenance..

I have blown out so many return pumps by turning them off during feeding and water changes. I was told to stop cutting the power to the pump but rather use my ball valve to restrict flow. The same question goes for my skimmer, turn it off or let it run and lower the water level?

thanks

 

[tomtoothdoc]

for feeding, i don't touch the return pump nor the skimmer, i only put the vortechs on feed mode.
the only time i turn the return and the skimmer pumps off are during water changes and equipment maintenance.

 

[NYCEnglish]

Same here

 

[reefsquared]

I feed I the corner of the tank so that way the food stays away from the pumps. It seems to work well because 95% of the food is gone before it even gets near a pump

 

[MIKE NY]

I have my system set up so I don't have to turn off any pumps for feedings or W/Cs.. My return runs 24/7 and I only turn it off for cleaning every six months...

 

[vio]

I have been wondering what everyone else does regarding feeding and maintenance..

I have blown out so many return pumps by turning them off during feeding and water changes. I was told to stop cutting the power to the pump but rather use my ball valve to restrict flow. The same question goes for my skimmer, turn it off or let it run and lower the water level?

thanks

Bypass the tank by adding one more valve, do not restrict the return pump, let the water run only one sump , when feed.

 

[MikeC]

Turn mine off for every feeding and every water change.
What pumps are you going threw and how long do they last?
I'm using a Mag2400

 

[SanmanReefer]

I set my Vortech pumps to feed mode and that's it. I only turn off the return pump and skimmer for water changes.

 

[MikeC]

Wow this is very interesting.
I dint think so manny people where pumping food thorough out their tanks and into their rocks,sand and other hiding spots for fear the excess food would brake down and turn into phosphates for algie to eat? But then again a lot of people have refugium s with micro algie in them that they need to feed so I guess it's understood ?

Me on the other hand choose to turn off all pums and let the fish eat all the food they are given and not blow around the tank.

Some one should do a pole lol.

 

[NYreefNoob]

mikec you dont think the food still hits the rocks and or sand when all flow is turned off ?
personally i dont turn anything off or turn my vortechs into feed mode, if it hits the sand thats what the nassarius snails are for and other clean up crew. ocean doesnt dhut down or go into feed mode, these fish are use to chasing food all day long

 

[MikeC]

mikec you dont think the food still hits the rocks and or sand when all flow is turned off ?

No it don't I watch my fish eat it? Not sure why this is hard to imagin?

ocean doesnt dhut down or go into feed mode, these fish are use to chasing food all day long

O we are comparing the ocean to a glass box :splitspin

Sorry not looking to start anything I honestly thought it was common procedure to turn off pumps when feeding

 

[NYreefNoob]

O we are comparing the ocean to a glass box

but the fish came from the ocean, not a glass box. and most are trying to re-create a piece of the ocean in that glass box.
alot of people turn their powerheads off for feeding, personally i never did and know a few who turn return pumps off, that one i really never understood the benifit versus the trouble in doing so. my fish are pretty aggressive eaters and if there is something they miss, my clean-up crew gets it, i do try to do fish that are different levels of position in the tank as well so that there is fish that mainly never come up off the sand area and feed on what makes it to the bottom

 

[edd]

i turn off return and skimmer for 30 min and power heads for 10 min. after i feed power heads blow food around for fish and corals for 20 min without washing down over flows.
thats what i read to do.
i have been running a blue line for 8 months no problems.

 

[james1990]

The pumps I kept blowing were the deep blue triton3. Could have also been from it being too close to my heater but I will never know which one caused it. From my somewhat small experience every time I try restarting one of these small submersible pumps they don't kick in too well. So I leave my pumps on 24/7 unless I need to kill power.

Side note: I cut flow to my sump during feeding because I have animals and coral that need the food to sink to the bottom to feed (mandarin,scoly's) as well as feed small foods for my SPS. My tank is currently a 30 gallon though so everything flushes down the overflow quickly.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

not familiar with the deep blue pump. and for a 30 gal. tank do you really need a 850 gph pump?
if the deep blue kept blowing, how about a mag 5/7 or an eheim 1250/1260? those pumps run almost forever.