feeding

Hi there

may be a bit of a daft one...

as I've metioned before i got a 1,5 m tank with an overflow with a sump

Now when i feed - Most of my floating food flows over the over flow .... before my fish get chance to eat it all.. so i cant feed brine shrimp etc

my concern here is that uneaten food will make me have to do even more water changes and dirty the water quicker

Only way for this not to happen so far is to switch my pump off and wait for the overflow to stop then feed

How do you guys with overflows handle the feeding of the floating food ?

rgds
Grant

 

Same way as you said Grant. Its a drawback.

 

Do not have an overflow but an internal filter that makes the food go all over the tank. What I do is switch it off. By now my fish is so use to getting food when the filter goes off they would all gather in anticipation.

 

lol that must be a funny site to see!!!!

 

Easy, switch off the return pump or change the return line position so flow moves the food away from the overflow

Another option is looking at powerheads

 

i try to avoid floating foods, and with flakes i release them under the water surface so that they are in the water colum and not floating.

 

You can also put a T-piece in the pipe returning to the tank with a tap then between the tank and the t-piece and a tap on the line from the open end of the t-piece that leads back to the entry point on the sump.
In otherwords you will have your existing pipe from the tanks overflow and an aditional pipe comming from the T-piece.
When you feed, close the tap leading to the tank and open the tap leading back to the sump entry point.
By doing this you basicly circulate the water through the sump while feedng your fish.

 

I have an easy answer for you, get some thick airtube if possible, it works better than the normal 5 mm type, then join it end on end to make a circle, it floats atop, just shake your food in the circle, dont be wastefull when feeding though, you will soon learn how much too feed for the fish to clear the feeder circle

note my feeder ring in top right

 

Ingenious solution Ferryman

 

thanks. I had that exact same problem when i first started up the 4ft. Now, my fish all flock to the ring when i lift the hanging hood to feed them

 

thanks ferryman - inexpensive and no work - just the way i like it... will give it a try tonight

 

Another way is to put a small baffle about 10mm from the overflow.
The water go underneath the baffle, and over the overflow.
This is a small piece of glass or perspex and can be fixed or made removable, like a small vertical slider!
The feeding ring is also very simple and removable - fish will know when you put it in, that its feeding time!

 

Gert, I dont even remove the ring, it floats on the surface, you don't notice it after a while. twirl some evil floating plants around it perhaps if they're available, or maybe just use a circle weave of plants, that could look cool

 

Great idea Ferryman and it works like a charm. I tried it in my tank and no more food going to waste in the over flow.

 

Great to hear, another tip for use is that if you have surface agitation, you may find it problematic if the ring floats to your hob stream or somesuch and suddenly all the food goes straight to the bottom in stream, take (Or buy if you dont have, it should cost 20c - R1 depending on lfs) a suction cup that is used to hold airline in place, and clip it to the side of the ring, then fasten it a ways away from the filter return, that way the food floats in the ring untill is soaks up and drifts down or gets eaten up. (My food rarely has a chance of drifting down as my tetras greedily feed. It just a-splash of movement in the ring till the food is gone. You can hear them nipping up food at the surface )