Can you / should you feed your tank through your return pump?

[BrokenReefer]

I’m sitting in the waiting room at my Wife’s OB daydreaming about when I finally get my tank up and running (work, 2-yr old, preggo wife ready to pop dominate my life right now) and I was thinking about feeding.

I know it seems like a bad idea, and I’m sure long term reefers can educate me on the why it is, but can you feed your tank inhabitants through your return pump? I’m thinking that would be a way to ensure the food is scattered throughout the tank, let’s the fish chase it down to eat, and also indirectly feed corals.

if this is a bad idea I’d love to hear why.

 

[blaxsun]

You'd probably find it gets clogged up considerably faster - requiring more maintenance. I find it works better to have the pump off and let the wavemakers in the tank scatter and distribute the food via flow.

 

[Zach B]

I have had my auto feeder set up like this for about a year now. My sump is in our basement, my auto feeder sits right above my return section. I do however take apart my pump to clean every few months. Is it the best for the pump, probably not but I'm feeding small tdo chromaboost and have not had issues yet. Best of luck

 

[DavidinGA]

If you don't mind your replacing your return pump quite often, then sure you can feed through it...

 

[Joe31415]

I've found the water in my sump tends to have areas of particularly low flow. There's plenty of sediment on the bottom, but even at the top, some of the water doesn't see that much movement*. I'd be worried about food settling into a dead spot and getting stuck there. I know people add power heads to their sump, but I probably wouldn't do that just to add food that way.
However, if I'm adding something like baby brine shrimp, I'll usually suck them up into a turkey baster and spray it directly into the return pump. Since everything goes directly into the pump, there's no dead spot issues to worry about.


*A while ago I even noticed that, if I looked closely, the return section of my pump had a inch or two layer of fresh water floating on top from the ATO. I've since moved the ATO line so it's right next to the return intake.

 

[NeedAReef]

probably depends on what you are feeding.....if you have a fuge and some goodies in there reproduce and boom end up back in the display, then I guess you could call that feeding. Like say you had a pair of shrimp that bred every so often, those little ones are going to get sucked up an into there one would think.

 

[bnord]

So have a small sicce in the return chamber, and a airstone to boot, the latter for perceived CO2/pH support, so I have a lot of movement in that small chamber
Firstly, it keeps that section VERY clean
this set up is replicated in both DTs
And I have auto feeders set for only when I am on short business trips to add small bursts of pellets 4X a day and the fish see the first one come through the return and its game on
I like not having the auto feeder on the top for esthetics
So YES you can do it and YES you should service your pump on a regular basis
and good luck with OBGyn

 

[ReefGeezer]

I toss cubes of frozen mysis and brine shrimp in the return section daily. I have a power head that keeps anything from settling in that section. It works well and, with regular maintenance, I've never had any issues with the pumps.

 

[workhz]

Tossing a small power head in the sump is probably not a horrible idea. I might do that.

I never completely understood the pause/feed settings on in tank wavemakers or powerheads. I like to drop the food in front of the power head and let it fling it all over the tank. I guess that doesn’t work for spot feeding.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Tossing a small power head in the sump is probably not a horrible idea. I might do that.

I never completely understood the pause/feed settings on in tank wavemakers or powerheads. I like to drop the food in front of the power head and let it fling it all over the tank. I guess that doesn’t work for spot feeding.

If you are target feeding the pause/feed function helps.

 

[Joe31415]

I like to drop the food in front of the power head and let it fling it all over the tank.

Works fine for fish, not so much for corals. Even if I'm broadcast feeding, I'll often shut the pumps off for 10 or 20 minutes (after the food has been spread around the tank) to give everyone a chance to extend polyps/feelers/sweepers and grab some of the food before it's down the overflow (the return pump is usually off/slowed down as well during feed mode).

 

[stovenut]

Like other posters have said, it would definitely gum up your return pump.

And depending on how much food avoids going back in the overflow(s), it can be a good solution to placing an auto feeder in an out of the way place.

 

[laverda]

Most return pumps do not have tight tolerances, so feeding via the return pump should not cause any issues. Higher pressure rated pumps run tighter clearances, but still should not present an issue unless you feeding large pellets. The worst I would expect is a film of food building up on the impellers and plumbing over time. Since your pumps need to be cleaned every so often anyway, this should not be a major issue.

 

[BrokenReefer]

This is all great info everyone! Currently waiting for OR team to grab my wife and pull out baby #2 so this has given me some good reading material.

sounds like the risk of impeller damage is there and if planned for, ie feed malleable foods, it’s doable. Definitely something to keep in mind for when that tank is up and running.