feeding

[rorrism]

Hi,

This may sound like a really stupid question, but is it okay to turn my filter off whilst I'm feeding?

The problem is, I am feeding the fish Hikari floating pellets, and am finding about a quarter to a third of the food is making its way into the filter by the current in the tank. If I can't is there any way I can avoid this?

For info. the occupants of the tank are 2x albino cory, 1x clown plec, 3x clown loach and 5x platies.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[Arfie]

I've started doing just that, I leave it off for about 10 mins whilst food gets eaten off the surface or wet enough to sink and get gobbled up.

Then switch back on, lots less waste in the filter and cleaning it is easier.

Another suggestion I've seen is cover it with a stocking (or pantyhose) to prevent it getting clogged, but It wont work on my filter.

Arfie

 

[Inchworm]

Hi rorrism

It won't hurt at all to turn the filter off while your fish are eating, but just be sure to turn it back on when they are finished because the beneficial bacteria need to have a supply of oxygenated water flowing over them. If you can turn it down instead of off, that would be the safest thing to do.

 

[FishDan]

You can certainly turn it off! And, if you forget to turn it on (like I have on more than one occassion) you won't have much to worry about. Unless you leave it unplugged for extended periods. The beneficial bacteria in your filter will do fine for a couple days without the filter running, so long as they stay wet. My filter, even at the lowest setting, is still too much for when I feed floating food, so I turn it off as well. For frozen I don't as the food sinks anyhow and is negligably affected by the filter.

\Dan

 

[SirMinion]

I always switch off for the ten minutes it takes my community fish to wipe out a couple of bags of live daphnia.

I learnt the hard way that daphnia clogs filters!