ara

OK, I have a strange question. Don't laugh at me. I am a new Betta owner and have a lot to learn. Do I need to keep a water filter pump running all the time or I can turn it off for a while?

Cherrry123

All the time.

Barbrella

IF your tank is properly cycled, then a colony of beneficial bacteria is living in the floss in the filter. If you turn the filter off for a length of time, this bacteria will die and your tank will no longer be cycled. That would be bad news for your fish when you do turn it on again.

We were all new to this once, and no one is going to laugh at you.

chickadee

If you turn the filter off it takes about 30 minutes for the beneficial bacteria to begin to die off. While they will not all die for a while longer than that, the longer the filter is off the more you will lose. So when you turn the filter back on the bacteria that are left will either have to work much harder or will not be enough to cover the ammonia load that the fish put out and will die off. Then you will lose your cycle and have to start over. Some hardy fish can stand this and some more fragile fish cannot and will die. So it is always a good thing to keep the filter running as much as possible. When you need to turn it off, like for filter maintenance, it is a good idea not to have it off longer than absolutely necessary. There may be times you cannot help it but then you will probably have a mini cycle that may last a few days and you may have to do extra water changes to help your fish get through it.
Whenever your filter has been off for an extended period of time you should always make sure and frequently check for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in your water.

Rose

MissMTS

Chickadee is right. Is there any particular reason you wanted to turn it off?

HatchetHaven

Narcicius

Hate to repeat but there is no reason to turn off a filter especially for even a moderately long time, just imagine having a bag over your head in which the air you breath is always the same air, eventually the CO2 leaving your body will poison that air. Thats basically the same thing only the poison is ammonia not CO2.