Poll: Pumps off when feeding?

melypr1985 · Mar 8, 2016

I leave mine on. It gives my fire shrimp and star fish a chance to get some food too! They are just as big of pigs as my fish are

Ivandrago · Mar 8, 2016

i don't turn the pumps of because when the fish/coral eat in the wild the ocean doesn't stop moving for them! In our hobby we are trying to replicate a piece of the wild.

Corfff · Mar 8, 2016

I leave my return on but turn my wave makers off. Makes for a good balance of flow where the fish have to chase their food around some, but not so much that they can't catch it. Also keeps the wave makers from blowing food out of corals mouths.

Breakthecycle2 · Mar 8, 2016

Its kind of "dumb" to not shut them off, all most of the food ends up in the overflow. Return pump off, power head on a few minutes after feeding.

don_chuwish · Mar 8, 2016

Off at first so I can target and observe better, then on to stir up anything they missed. I do think the fish go after the food in motion with a bit more passion.

Leviathan · Mar 8, 2016

I turn mine off for about 4 minutes. I then kick on the power head for a few more, then turn the other pumps on.

Cottonmdalton · Mar 8, 2016

Feeding corals everything is off.
Feeding fish only returns and skimmers off. Powerheads help the frozen food break up

n2585722 · Mar 8, 2016

My return stays on, but the 2 MP10's go into feed mode which slows them down.

melev · Mar 8, 2016

I turn off the return pump and skimmer when I feed the reef. The vortech pumps keep the water moving, circulating the food everywhere for those 10 minutes. The return pump turns back on automatically, and the skimmer turns on 5 minutes after that.

redfishbluefish · Mar 8, 2016

I have a single button on the old ReefKeeper that turns off all pumps. If I don't push the button again, it will automatically restart in 15 minutes. I can set that restart time to whatever I want......I picked 15 minutes so that I can use it on water changes as well......just in the nick of time.

Squishie89 · Mar 8, 2016

All off when feeding for both my fish tank and my coral quarantine tank. My fish tank has a controller and I put it into feed mode which lasts 15 min so I wont forget to turn them back on, but I spot feed a lot of my fish (and my skimmer has programming to not restart until 30 minutes after the pumps coming back on that way any liquid foods can actually get around the tank and not just taken out by the skimmer). In the coral quarantine tank I definitely have to have the pumps off as some of the corals are slow eaters.

Wiz · Mar 8, 2016

Most of the time no. But yes for finicky eaters like my manderins or some corals. So other for me.

saltyhog · Mar 8, 2016

My feed mode turns off my MP's only and lets my return pump run. If I leave the vortechs on the food never gets low enough in the water column for my goby and firefish to get any. MP's stay off 10 minutes in this mode.

When I feed corals I have another feed mode that turns off the return, the vortechs, the skimmer and ATO (otherwise I have to listen to the high water alarm go off) for 30 minutes. After the allotted time both turn everything back on automatically.

saltyphish · Mar 8, 2016

Depends if I'm just feeding my fish or my corals. Fish only pumps on. Got to make them work for it. When feeding corals pumps off. Plates and shrooms are slow eaters and the pumps just blow the food off of them.

Feltman · Mar 8, 2016

That's what I like about the jabeo pumps I have 2 recirculation and 1 return jabeo and all u have to do is hit the feed button dump the food in and walk away. They turn back on in 10 minutes. U can put ur food hungry corals underneath the normal drop zone and they get a decent dusting as well. Then after 10 minutes everything fires up on its own.

human · Mar 8, 2016

It depends on the fish I'm feeding, in a reef I usually shut the powerheads off for a while, but use a turkey baster to squirt small amounts around the tank so everyone gets their fair share. When I had my groupers I left the flow on to help give whatever chunk of food on the end of my feeding stick some movement, it made them a lot more interested in it than just throwing it in the tank, plus it helps keep the tank cleaner.