Return Pump On or Off During Feeding

[input80]

Ok, I'll have to try leaving them on & feeding small amounts, my biggest concern is the food going into the sump & being wasted.

[Ulmo]

When I'm surface feeding flakes the return has to go off. Otherwise I put the food into the water and turn my vortech up to constant 100% and blow it all around as hard as I can. My guppies have to work for their keep.

[gregzz4]

I voted No and for many of the same reasons as Bill
If they can't catch it in my tank, they sure as hell would have died in the ocean
I programmed a standby into my RKE for feeding, and that was a pain in the tookus in itself. But I don't use it ...
I just don't like the pumps being turned off and on every day, nevermind if one of them doesn't restart correctly

Food into the overflow be dammed I have a serpent star in my sump and he seems to like it being right next to the sock hanger num num num

[The Guy]

I don't turn anything off, I let them work for their food and they do. It's like a mad flurry of fish grabbing everything that goes in.

[mikellini]

If you set things up properly (IMO), the flow rate going through the overflow shouldn't be that high anyway compared to the flow in your tank. So, turning off your return pump shouldn't make much of a difference in how hard the fish have to work to get food.

Currently I'm fish only, so I don't bother to turn anything off, but when I feed corals, I usually turn in-tank flow down to a minimum for ten minutes or so. I actually just programmed a few feed modes for my apex to do this, one for 10 mins and one for 20. Otherwise, food goes in and the fish are on their own. The only exception to this is when feeding particularly oily foods, amino acids etc; I've created a third feed mode to turn only the skimmer off for a few hours.

[gregzz4]

I don't feed my corals ...
The fish do it for me (poop)

[mikellini]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

I don't feed my corals ...
The fish do it for me (poop)

While it's absolutely true that most corals don't NEED to be fed anything directly, some do, and most will benefit from some additional feeding, whether it be dissolved organics, plankton, or larger morsels.

[kien]

I have never turned off my return pump for feeding.

there was a period of time when I did hit the "feed-pause" button on my controller to stop the powerheads for 5 minutes. I eventually got (more) lazier and stopped using that button.. so no, I don't turn off any pumps or powerheads anymore. The fish don't seem to mind. I feed pellets on an auto feeder as well as frozen in the evenings. Food goes EVERYWHERE !!