You should be fine without the biowheel for a short period, get a new one asap.Watch ammonia and nitrite levels and also monitor the water clarity if it becomes a little cloudy there could be a problem brewing, this is not necessarly so in some cases I must add. Do your water changes a little more often than usual, and cut down feeding to a minimum for a week or two.
Ill tell you about friends, I had a party once and when I had a 200g in the living room, everybody put their empty beer cans in the tank. There was like 40 cans in there in the morning and the tank smelt of beer, I was lucky and I didnt lose a fish. Friends seem to think these kind of things are funny. :huh: