Filtration on or off during feeding?

thedocta

thedocta

Member
Hey guys I am kinda new to reefing and think I finally got into a regular feeding pattern for my tank...Marine snow twice on weekends and once daily on weekdays, brine shrimp every other day. I am realizing that my skimmer (bak pak) and filter (HOT magnum canister) are filtering out a lot of the shrimp and the marine snow bottle says to turn off filtering and protein skimming for an hour after feeding. Is that right? What else should I shut my filtration off for? All advice is appreciated. Thanks-Greg
 
sweetreef

sweetreef

Active Member
i shut mine off power heads etc for a half hour when iam use dt'sPhytoplankton every three days gives the corals time to eat...with powerheads and everthing else going on it all goes away to quick..
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
If you are going to start dosing coral food like the marine snow and phytoplankton, I would shut off the skimmer and filter, but I would get yourself a cheap powerhead to keep in the tank or put into the tank when you turn these two things off so that at least the supplements move around in the water and your water does not fall stagnant for this time.
 
thedocta

thedocta

Member
Ok marinesnow says to leave a good amount of water flow on while feeding so I leave my 2 maxi jet 900's and my spray bar hooked up to a rio 600 on. Is that enough? Thanks-Greg
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
Yes, but while you are converting your tank into a reef tank, I would consider upgrading your pump too if you still have it under warranty. Rio pumps are very problematic and are not very reliable. If there's one thing you want with a reef, it's stability, and if you do not have reliable products working inside it, it's very hard to be stable. That's just my opinion though, however, it's very well spoken about that Rio pumps usually cause nothing but problems.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
The number one problem is that they don't last very long, and if you turn them on and off a lot, their life span is much shorter. Thus, if you come home from work and your pump died in the middle of the day, your tank may run into some major problems.
Another huge problem that they have been known for is electrocuting fish and causing mini-fires within the tank/sump. If you do a search for Rio pumps, you will find this problem as one of the flaws of a Rio too.
I am not trying to advise you to ditch the pumps you have if you do not want to. You know the saying, if it's not broke, don't fix it. If they have worked okay until now, continue to use them, but when the time does come to replace them, I would not buy another Rio.
 
thedocta

thedocta

Member
Alright...I'll leave them on for now and replace them eventullY. One question tho...how do they start a fire under water. Thanks-Greg
 
ohioreef

ohioreef

Member
Rio has come out with a new line of pumps. They are the HF (Hyper Flow) series. They are mag drive pumps. Hopefully Rio addressed the problems with these new pumps.
I have a 12HF and mine has worked great for several months now.
They carry them on this site now.
 
wayne40

wayne40

Member
yes.... I have had this little sump problem to happen to me too!!! did a water change powered backup RIO 1800 just a short time later a POP then started smoking and stinking!!!
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
Hopefully Rio did fix the problem, ohioreef. I do not know too many people who have bought the new ones though, so I cannot really assume whether they are trustworthy or not yet. Hopefully you do not have any problems with yours.
 
ohioreef

ohioreef

Member
Mine has been running for 6 1/2 months without a hint of any problems.
I took it apart today and gave it a good cleaning and all seems well.
 
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