Why is it

Harleylay

Harleylay

Reefing newb
I was wondering why that when i turn my power heads and sump off my fish are more active? it seems like they start swimming all over especially the clowns and green chromis the tang swims all the time and the cardinal well i dont ever see him he hides all the time.
 
When the pumps go off they associate that with the dinner bell and naturally become the most active. Mine will freak out and hide anytime the pumps went off but I never turn them off to feed.
 
Yep....mine totally go apesh*t when I go to the back of the tank (which is where I feed them) and even more so when I put their yellow food container under the lights to thaw.....then the clownfish practically tries to jump out of the tank when I turn off the tank LOL Remember Pavlov's experiment with the drooling dogs ;)
 
I feed my fish with powerheads on, and I feed my more "carnivorous" corals every other day with powerheads off. Its just whenever my fish see the cup go into the water, then they crowd around in the corner and push eachother around. I always start with a small piece of nori, the dried seaweed stuff, and see who snatches it out of my fingers first.
 
Harleylay said:
Why is that, don't a lot of the food get sucked down the overflow?
Click to expand...

I do many of my feedings with the pumps on.. sometimes I turn them off.. like if I'm feeding the coral.

The trick to feeding with the pumps on is to learn what spot to pour the food/water mix into the tank at which causes it to circulate in a path which doesn't end up at the overflow. I have a spot I use that takes the food on a tour of the tank before it heads for the overflow.. By then all the fish are well fed and most of the rest has made it among the rocks, coral, and bottom for my CUC to munch on.

What little % makes it to the overflow then gets split between the skimmer and the refugium.

Does this help any?
 
I feed with everything on - the fish seem to eat more and "hunt" more when the food is moving around. Yeah, I'm sure a good chunk gets sucked up in the overflow, but when I turn everything off the fish aren't nearly as thrilled and the food doesn't get caught up in the flow and taken to my corals..
 
I shut mine off, but leave the powerheads on. I want to make sure my goby, who stays at the bottom, gets his share of food. When I have petsitters, I don't tell them to shut it off....I don't want to risk that they forget to turn the pump back on.
 
:shock: ..pet sitters... :shock:

Is like the tv show "wife swap" .. I'll have to write a book of rules!

.. and it will have to have a list of definitions in the front, 3 pages long...
.. a plumbing schematic..
..an in case of every kind of possible emergency section...
..a dose procedure for each day of the week..
..a who eats what when feeding schedule..
..an LED, pump, sump, skimmer, refugium, valves adjustment - primmer class 101 section...
.. and what else?

. a must pass - final test section...

.. a sign your life away if you fail section..
 
Last edited:
I always left everything on when I fed too. A piece would go down the overflow here or there, but I usually dumped the food right in front of a powerhead so it would spread all over the tank.
 
Everything off for me. after about 5 min I'll turn the powerheads on and put them in feeding mode to stir up anything the CUC hasn't found on the bottom. about 5 min later the sump goes back on.
 
My main system pump stays on, but I put my Vortech's into feed mode which does not turn them off, but slows them down significantly. Whenever the pumps go into feed mode, my fish go into a frenzy, they've learned to associate that with food
 

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