daniejd Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 Just curious if a regular scheduled pump outage would be harmful. I have a bush of critters that become more active when the pump is off (copepods, amphipods, hydroid jellyfish, ball anemone etc). I only have 2 coral, gsp and one of those brown trumpet zoas. Both appear to be growing (tank is only about 1 month old). Would a 4 hour outage nightly be harmful? Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 I don’t think it would be harmful necessarily, although you might consider a shorter period than 4 hours. Many hobbyists have pumps with sophisticated controllers and program in calmer periods and surges. Risks may just be the potential for the pump not to turn back on for some reason, or your heater not as effectively warming the tank at night, if the pump is off too long. 1 Quote Link to comment
DaJMasta Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 Keep in mind that the pump is the primary means to both deliver oxygen and remove waste from many animals in your tank, and that you need to have some circulation to keep your tank heated (if nothing's going by the heater, it heats the water around it and the heat doesn't get to the rest). A short time is no problem, a few hours is probably not great. I'd probably stick to an hour or less at a time, but if you had a low-circulation mode (no powerheads but still a return pump, for example) then a longer period like that probably wouldn't be a problem. If you decide to do it, try and keep an eye on things the first few times so you can be sure that it's not negatively impacting your setup. 1 Quote Link to comment
Ohmegg Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 2 hours ago, daniejd said: Just curious if a regular scheduled pump outage would be harmful. I have a bush of critters that become more active when the pump is off (copepods, amphipods, hydroid jellyfish, ball anemone etc). I only have 2 coral, gsp and one of those brown trumpet zoas. Both appear to be growing (tank is only about 1 month old). Would a 4 hour outage nightly be harmful? I've thought about doing this as well. Give a chance for little critters to start swimming about and get chomped by hungry candy canes at night. Quote Link to comment
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