pumps off during feeding?

[usctrack]

hello all,
I have had my tanks set up for 9-12 months and have been feeding with my koralia pumps turned off so most food will be kept in the column and have a chance to get eaten as is floats or falls.

However, I keep the return pump and skimmer running during this time? Should I turn them off during feeding? If so, for how long?

I keep the koralia off for 10 mins and was thinking about 20 for the return and 30-60 for the skimmer.

My only concern is the pumps not starting back up.

Thanks for the help.

[Tat2demon]

I have 4 Koralia 1050s in my 75 on half hour timers so its 2 pumps on, 2 off. When I feel I kick them all on to keep the food suspended. If not most seems to fall behind the rocks.

[seapug]

You hear the recommendation to do this quite often and many controllable pumps have a "feeding mode" to slow them down, but I find my fish won't eat when the food isn't blowing around the tank, they just sit there and watch it fall to the bottom-- like it's no fun for them.

I do turn off the protein skimmer for an hour or so, but all the pumps in the display stay on and the corals do manage to catch quite a lot of chunks and particles. I guess it comes down to fine tuning the flow in the tank.

[usctrack]

with the 10 min pause some of the food they miss make it to the bottom for the hermits, coral on the sand. Once the pumps come back on it lifts everything back into the water column.

I just wanted to make sure I wasnt doing anything wrong.