Filters on or off while feeding?

[kilnakorr]

Is it a good idea to turn off filters for like 10 min while feeding?
I see a lot of food being drag down and into the dense plant area where fish will have a hard time getting to it.

If off is fine, should CO2 just continue to build up in the reactors, or switched off also?

 

[Majsa]

I do switch the filter off for a few minutes, the inline diffuser keeps bubbling. Just remember to switch the filter back on. I did forget it once for several hours, I had no idea what that would mean for the co2 but there was no visible harm done.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I make a slurry of Grindal worms, Micro-worms, Daphnia, whatever pellet I'm feeding, freeze dried copepods, mosquito larvae etc. by adding them to a beaker with a enough tank water so that I can swirl the cup around and tip the whole lot into the outflow from the filter, I don't ever feed very much in one go. Then I walk around the corner and turn the filter off. The fish then spend 10 minutes or so with the filter off, then I turn it back on and they will spend another 30 minutes or so picking bits off the plants and out of the current.

cheers Darrel

 

[jameson_uk]

I think it is certainly worth it for fish that feed at the surface. I find my tetras are a bit jumpy to start with and wait for a while to grab the food. With the filter on it is already being sucked down to the bottom. Frozen daphnia also takes a lot longer to reach the bottom which keeps them happy too.

Also the fish in the main tank now seem trained. As soon as the filter clicks off you can see several occupants start to make their way out looking for food (they are most disappointed when it is actually a water change ). My old betta was also very eager to pop up to where my hand was each time the filter clicked off.

Having left the filter off overnight many times I now have an Alexa routine that turns the filter an skimmer off then turns them back on again after 30 minutes (I find the corys seem to appreciate sinking wafers sitting on the bottom for a little while)

 

[kilnakorr]

Having left the filter off overnight many times I now have an Alexa routine that turns the filter an skimmer off then turns them back on again after 30 minutes (I find the corys seem to appreciate sinking wafers sitting on the bottom for a little while)

I already have an automted setup turning my skimmer on after 15 minutes when feeding, and could easily add my canister filters to it also.
Just wasn't sure if it would be a good idea, with CO2 and all.

 

[Sammy Islam]

I turn my filter off for 5m at feeding time because i don't like the idea of the food flying about everywhere and being wasted leading to more waste and algae. Another reason is that i mainly feed my fish at the substrate (beach area) because i have rams and gouramis, the tetras are also fine feeding from the substrate as they are so greedy. Luckily my scape layout and flow allows the food to stay within my sand area so everyone gets a fair chance to eat and very little gets wasted, especially the 100s of shrimp that are always sifting through the sand. I mainly feed tetra crips, fluval bugbites, bloodworms, mosquito larvae, tetra sinking granuales and some hikari wafers (shrimp + algae).

 

[JoshP12]

My co2 turns off before the lights. So I feed in that window (between co2 off and lights off) and turn off my filter. I notice the fish take that as a cue as well - when I cut the flow they all go crazy for food.

If I miss a day of feeding, I don’t stress.