Turning Off My Filter At Night

[Eebie]

Due to noise issues with my fish tank filter at night, I have been turning off my filter.
Since I've been doing this I've noticed my fish behave much differently.
My fish appear to be more active due to the fact that they are not having to swim around with an ongoing current in the water.
I've always been slightly annoyed that my fish always seem to be in the lower half of the tank and most times it appears they aren't even there. Yet as soon as I turn the filter off they all start swimming around the whole tank and look much happier.
Basically, want I want to know is, is it going to be ok turning the filter off over night?
Will it have an affect on the either the fish or the water quality of my tank?

 

[dwarfgourami]

Afraid the filter does need to be on; otherwise levels of toxins will start to rise. What are your fish, how strong is the current and what size the tank?

 

[Sheridanp]

The bacteria will die over night, so you might have already killed your bacteria. Look into another fillter if it's that noisy.

 

[clunkster]

you should never switch your filter off for any length of time as sheridanp has pointed out you will kill all the benificial bacteria in your fillter so you will be constantly creating water quality problems

 

[millym]

what sort of fish do you have? what sort of filter? i guess its an internal one, you may be able to add a spraybar to your filter nozzle that will reduce the current a bit if you think your fish dont like current( piece of pipe with holes along it goes on filter outflow & helps dissapate the flow, some filters come with these already)
as said turning the filter off will cause your filter bacteria to die which will affect your water quality & ultimately harm your fish.

 

[Bloo]

As mentioned by everyone above - never ever turn your filter off unless neccesary for maintence. The bacterial colony in the filter will start to die off after a few hours and make things very unstabel in your tank. This will have a negative impact on your fish - stress them and make the more prone to illness. On top of having to deal with constant levels of rising ammonia and nitrite (toxic).

If you have a noisy spray bar, make adjustments to reduce / prevent this. What filter (make and model) exactly do you have ?

 

[Eebie]

Thanks for the advice guys, the filter is a built in one which is situated above the tank. The pump is at the top, draws water from the bottom on the left hand side and has the outlet at the top on the right.
The Pump itself is not the noisy part, it's water coming out the other side which creates the noise aspect.
It's a Jebo model. It's an 80 litre tank.

The fish I have are tetras and barbs and a pleco. I did have two angels but both recently died. Would this have contributed to their deaths by having the filter turned off?
They were extremely active and healthy for quite sometime.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

you should never switch your filter off for any length of time

As mentioned by everyone above - never ever turn your filter off unless neccesary for maintence.

It seems that these two suggestions differ in that one says never, the other says for maintenance. Bloo's suggestion is the one I'd go with, personally, after reading that water changing thread... wherever it was.

Fortunately I'm a heavy sleeper, so I can nighther relate nor sympathize with your wanting to turn the filter off.

The only way to know if turning off the filter lead to their deaths would have been to do a water test to see what the water quality was like at the time.

As for your other fish, I would think they'd do ok with the filter, even with a higher gph... Any way to change the rate of water flow?

Also, in a 21 gallon or so tank (I think better in gallons, you se ) the barbs and tetras probably stressed out the angels with their movement, if not nipping their fins. Therefore, they might have contributed to their deaths as well.

 

[Bloo]

The only other suggestion I can come up with, is to add an internal fitler and just use that one. Not the inbuilt one in the hood.

 

[diademhill]

The only other suggestion I can come up with, is to add an internal fitler and just use that one. Not the inbuilt one in the hood.

Drop a piece of sponge down from the outlet so you don't get any splashing?

 

[Eebie]

Again, thanks everyone. The advice is very helpful and valuable. Will no longer be turning off the filter. Cheers.