How long do you shutdown your pumps when feeding corals?

[Steve1500]

Question assumes a mixed reef understanding there’s many variables.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I do not shut anything down. I am dripping phyto 24 hours a day 7 days a week. My fish food has aminos and reef roids added. I just let the current do its thing and they all seem to catch something.

 

[TheHarold]

I have a 15 minute feed button, but usually only will use it when I am feeding the fish.

 

[Hemmdog]

I usually don’t shut anything down. Occasionally if I’m target feeding lps at night I will turn off the powerheads for 15 mins. Return pump ALWAYS stays on.

 

[Jon Fishman]

I turn off the powerheads, and leave my return pump running...... target feed, wait 5-10 minutes, and when I realize I forgot 20 minutes later, I turn them back on.

 

[Hermie]

I turn off return pump because it's 10x flow for about 30 minutes or so; if I didn't, the food would get sucked down into the sump. I also turn off the powerheads in the DT.

Once the corals have food in their mouths, I'll turn the return pump back on. And wait about 30 min before turning the powerhead back on.

I don't really see how there's a difference btween 15 and 30 minutes to be honest... unless I saw studies or something...

 

[andrewkw]

Up to 1 hour. It depends what they are eating and what tank. In my display tank it's probably 30-40 minutes. In my frag tank it's more like 1 hour since there are no fish in the tank I don't worry as much about oxygen and I overfeed the corals since there is nothing to come take the food out of their mouths.

Think about how fast you are to pull out your generators when the power goes out and then subtract 5-10 minutes and that's probably a good time to leave the pumps off.

 

[Jman76]

I only shutdown when spot feeding. Otherwise for broadcast, I'll run just flow with no filtration for 10 minutes or so to allow it to be eaten and not filtered.

 

[Sailingeric]

I usually don’t shut anything down. Occasionally if I’m target feeding lps at night I will turn off the powerheads for 15 mins. Return pump ALWAYS stays on.

Nearly this. I have my Nero 5 powerhead to go into feed mode running at 5% or so in the morning and in the evening and I feed around that time. The return pump stays on.

 

[MiamiViceCorals]

Most of the time I dont shut anything down, sometimes when target feeding but that only happens once a month or so.