Turn Off Filter?
- Thread starter emmaS
- Start date
I don't know about biowheels, but I'd think it's a matter of how the fish eat. I have a powerhead filter which causes the pellets and flakes to sink quickly, but I don't turn it off. 2 of my 3 cherry barbs are very aggressive when it comes to food, and will fight over the floating food, but the 3rd is more shy, but will immediatly grab anything that sinks. If the filter is causing food to sink and it's ignored and gets lost in the gravel, then it's probably a good idea to turn off the filter when feeding, but if everything is being eaten, it probably doesn't matter.
You can turn off the filter for a few minutes while you feed, it's not going to hurt anything. Just don't leave it off for more than about 5-10 min max, and try not to overfeed.
There seems to be a great chance here to forget to turn the filter back on. I would avoid turnign it off unless you really need to. I have never personally had a probelm with any of my HOB filter on any of my tanks.
Assuming the person remembers to turn their filter back on there is nothing wrong with turning it off to feed.
Sometimes if you have fish that are slow to grab the food and a filter that intakes water quickly just about all your food ends up in the filter. That's a huge waste, IMO.
I turn off all my filters when when doing water changes on my tanks, I've yet to forget to turn them back on.
Sometimes if you have fish that are slow to grab the food and a filter that intakes water quickly just about all your food ends up in the filter. That's a huge waste, IMO.
I turn off all my filters when when doing water changes on my tanks, I've yet to forget to turn them back on.
I would not turn the filter off. As previously mentioned there is a good possibility that you will inadvertently forget to turn the filter back on and this of course will mess with water quality. The good bacteria will start to die and while the filter is shut off for any extended period of time the fish will suffer since thier life support system will have been shut down. Try dropping the food in the tank where there is as little surface aggitation as possible away from the filter and see if that helps. I think the possibility of forgetting to turn the filter back on exsists mainly because we all are enthralled with watching our fish and since this is so mesmerizing we just seem to forget about the filter for a short time.
Marinemom
Marinemom
There are several ways I could think of to remember to turn a filter back on.
Setting an alarm, sticking a note on the tank before you turn 'em off, etc.
It just doesn't seem like that big of a task to me.
Maybe you guys are just extremely forgetful : p
Setting an alarm, sticking a note on the tank before you turn 'em off, etc.
It just doesn't seem like that big of a task to me.
Maybe you guys are just extremely forgetful : p
turning on an HOB when doing a water change is a little easier to remember than when you feed your fish every day.... can't tell you how many times I'd get halfway to work when the thought pops into my head "did I remember to lock the door, did I close the garage door, etc." now I'd be thinking "did I turn the filter back on?"
I personally wouldn't turn my filter off every day when feeding...it'd be way too easy to forget to turn on... the phone or doorbell rings and I'd be off to do something else, possibly forgetting all about the fish.
not sure what you're feeding, but you can try a feeding ring like the one in the attached link http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produ...ll&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&N=2004&Nty=1