fish feeding, Pumps on or off?

[edshern]

I'm confused about how to feed my fish in my 92 gallon reef tank.
8 fish (flame hawk, pacific tang, 2 chromis, neon goby, blue velvet cardinal, bangai cardinal) each about 1 1/2 inches long)
i alternate flake food, frozen brine(thawed in some tank water), formula one and two.
right now i turn off all pumps and slowly pour in small amounts of food. I wait till the fish have eaten it all, then pour in more. I do this for a couple of minutes or till they slow down. the cubed formula one & two, I thaw in saltwater then let it float to the bottom after turning the pumps off. Fish and Hermits feast. Pumps back on when the cubes all gone. (I put in 1.5 cubes)
Am I doing this right. How do you feed. Do I have to turn the pumps off. Iv'e heard that it's better to leave the pumps on ( but it seems that just sends a ton of food into the overflow.
What do you all do?

 

[danmhippo]

If your Powerheads are all pointing to the surface and the overflow, it's obvious anything got in the path of the jets will go down the overflow. My Powerheads are all pointing away from the overflow, so I feed with pumps on.

Whatever suit you fine, then keep doing it. Pumps on or off, it doesn't really matters, as long as all food are finished within 5 minutes.

 

[Anonymous]

imho-definitely shut the return pump from the sump off, and wait for the water to stop draining before you feed, to keep the food from getting lost to the sump(per your observation :wink: )

i'd also recommend against adding more than one amount at a time-after they finish the first amount, that should be it:

I wait till the fish have eaten it all, then pour in more. I do this for a couple of minutes or till they slow down

little bits of food ALWAYS get missed, and oversating 'em leads to more wasteproducts(missed food) then necessary-i'd suggest leaving 'em a little bit hungry- they'll scour the tank for the leftovers

 

[Palmetto]

I leave 'em on. A lot of the food is a bit large for most coral polyps anyway, and the powerhead acts like a blender for me.



Of course, my overflow leads to another tank that I have to feed anyway, so it really doesn't matter if anything goes over the top. Extremely little food ever makes the trip downstairs anyway, though. I hardly ever feed flakes, and when I do I hold it underwater until it sinks. Most of the meaty stuff just drifts on down the the thousands of hungry polyps waiting below.

 

[Anemone]

I leave my pumps on.

A) I'm too lazy to bother with turning them off, and

B) the pumps spread the food around the tank, givng everyone a chance to eat, and cutting down on any aggression if the food was all concentrated in one spot.

FWIW,
Kevin

 

[SPC]

Posted by Kevin:

B) the pumps spread the food around the tank, givng everyone a chance to eat, and cutting down on any aggression if the food was all concentrated in one spot.

Posted by Palmetto:

Of course, my overflow leads to another tank that I have to feed anyway

-I leave mine on for the two above reasons. Any food that makes it to the overflow goes to my refugium.
Steve

 

[dizzy]

Food that sinks quickly is no problem. Flakes or pellets are more challenging. You can easily make a floating feeding ring from some airline tubing and a tiny piece of 1/8" rigid tubing. Simply bend the airline tubing in a circle and connect the ends with a 1/2" long piece rigid tube like the old undergravel rigid tubing. Use a piece of fishing line to secure if needed. Larger sizes of plastic tubing will work as well.

 

[reefland]

I leave my pumps on and squirt the food right into the stream of a Gemini (960 GPH) power head. Within seconds food is all over the tank and fish are going nuts.

If some food goes into the overflows or sump, its nothing major. All helps feed the refugium in the sump.

 

[Anonymous]

I turn mine off. I feed the refugium a sprilina wafer each day. I don't like any food going into the sump. The sump stays cleaner that way IMO.

Louey

 

[edshern]

If some food goes into the overflows or sump, its nothing major. All helps feed the refugium in the sump.

unfortunately I dont have a refugium yet, just a 20 gallon sump.
does that change this opinon?

 

[DK]

I leave my pumps on but turn my powerheads off. After feeding, I turn the powerheads on and watch the fish go scavaging. I assume that some of it gets to the corals.

With a 20 gallon sump, whatever isn't taken out by the skimmer may find its way back to the tank - so it really doesn't matter.