colar and circulating pump question

jaysix79

quick question.....

I have a 26 gallons saltwater tank with 12 gallons sump filtration system. I have a mixture of soft and hard coral in my display tank..

For those who have the same corals. do you guys leave your circulating pump (not the return pump from the sump) on all the time or do you guys turn it off at night...

what do you guys recommend?.



thanks guys john

onefish2fish

keep your powerheads on 24/7. stagnent water goes bad. oxygen content isnt that good and this makes things even bad for fish.

i did have one of my tanks at one time running with 2 hydor k4s and 2 hydor k2s all on during the day time ( when the tank lights were on ) and the 2 hydor 2ks would shut off at night with a timer. just an idea but i would def. keep good flow in the tank at all times.

jaysix79

would my sump pump give enough circulation at night? or is it always rule of thumb that more circulation the better... I'm just wondering because I've seen power strip which has multiple timers.. which i know for sure that those timers are not for the lighting alone....

onefish2fish

the aqua controller jr or reefkeeper jr or something like that is a $100 controller that i find to work very well. i use it for my lights, heater, fan and sump light, but you can use them for pumps/powerheads. to sum everything up though, your going to want flow in your tank, even at night. whether or not your going to make the flow at night less then that of the day is up to you, its not something required. remember in the wild waves dont stop at night.
another trick to consider is during feeding unplug your sump pump ( so water should no longer be flowing down to it keeping all food in the display ) and turn off your powerheads for about 5 - 10 minutes but NOT to long. this offers calm waters for fish to get a chance to eat and allows most corals to send out sweeper tenticles for catching food, once the pumps come back on, the corals will have a feast.

jaysix79

cool thanks man.... now i understand...