Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board - powerheads and feeding

(Moved to the main reefing forum.)

But in answer to your question, I do both (i.e., reduce flow, or not reduce flow). It kind of depends on what I'm feeding.

On one tank I have the Red Sea wavemaker and it has a feeding button which turns off the powerheads for 5 minutes. On this tank the sump return is not controlled by the wavemaker, so the sump return remains on at all times. Thus flow is reduced, but not eliminated, when I use this.

On another tank I just turn the powerbar switch off for a few minutes. This turns off all flow since the powerhead AND sump return are through this powerbar (everything but the lighting, basically). The one drawback is that I have to REMEMBER to turn things back on within 3-5 minutes, if I forget to turn it back on, that would not be good. (That said, I did once forget for about 1 - 1/2 hours ... everything turned out fine in the end but man was I stressed for a while when I discovered what I had done.) Flow is eliminated when I use this, and I really only do it if I'm trying to feed my male clownfish, who won't come out of his anemone to feed (he won't chase food), so the food has to "come to him" before he'll eat it.

But for some foods I don't turn off the currents at all. Cyclops-eeze, I take a pinch-full and release it in the output of a powerhead. That blows it all over the place, and fish and shrimp go nuts chasing the stuff. Without it being blown about, the stuff just floats and basically goes down the overflow into the sump. So for Cyclops-eeze I never turn off the current. Even my shy clownfish will make the occasional mad dash out of his anemone to catch some of this (but he'll never come up to the surface to get it, which is where it would be if I turned off the current).

When I feed flakes, I'll turn off the currents basically only if it fancies me. There's no need to though, most of who's interested in flake food is more than capable of chasing it down even if there's current.

HTH!