bio wheel ?

Lady G

Lady G

It's a mafia thing, nothing personl
Oct 6, 2005
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gingersassatelli.bodybyvi.com
I am looking into getting the Marineland Emperor biowheel power filter for my 55/gallon. It will be planted once I get it all set up, Big Als has a 280 on sale for 28.49 right now or a 400 for 37.99, would either of this be good to get? Or 2 of the 280, 1 280/1 400? What would be the best to go with for a 55/g?

Thanks!!!

Gin
 
i havnt heard bad stuff about marineland and those are good prices i have one for my 60 gallon
 
I've used an Emperor 400 with my 55 gal. planted tank for a year with excellent results. My recommendation would be not to go below this capacity.

That being said, you'll get lot's of opinions and many of them will probably be right too. More filtration is usually never a problem unless it creates too much turbulence. Would my tank be a little cleaner with 2 Emp 400's running? Probably so but one combined with weekly PWC and glass cleaning works well for me.

Finally, if you intend to use pressurized CO2 I would steer you away from biowheels. They tend to let too much dissolved CO2 escape. A canister filter would be a better choice.

Good luck.
 
For now I don't plan on using CO2, yes at first I thought I would but I'm not sure I'm ready for all that right now. My lighting will be low about 1.5/gal give or take a little so I'm not to worried about CO2 now....maybe someday not near future though.
I just don't know much about filters yet and wasn't sure what size to go with, if it would be better to have 1 bigger or 2 smaller or what. I've seen so much about biofilters on here I figured thats what I should go with.
BTW I will be doing weekly changes too, BTW what water % changes are best for a 55?

Thanks for the replies!

Gin
 
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i have one, and it works fine. Only negative might be the noise. I'd just go with a 280 for a 55.
 
Oh are they loud then? If they are are all bio's noisy?
 
I have a zillion Penguins and Emperors :)

Seriously, I have about 12 or 13 of them now :eek:

I bought 3 Emperor 400s (biological filter) for my CO2 injected 75g planted tanks. I will be running them along with an Eheim 2026 (mechanical) on each one.

IME most of the Penguins and Emperors I've bought are noisy when they are new. After a few days and the first water change they are super quiet. You can control the flow so that there is little surface disturbance, but I use sponges to catch the falling water which also lessens the water agitation.

Even if you do not plan on injecting CO2, it is beneficial to the plants if you retain as much as you can of that which is already in your water by lessening the surface agitation.

Roan
 
I like the Penguine and Emperor PF's also. You really can't beat them for dependability and performance. If the trickle of water rolling off of a bio-wheel bothers you then I'd say aquaria is probably not your hobby of choice :joke:

My one bit of advice... Focus on the filter media when purchasing filtration. I currently have 14 tanks (with a 15th in progress) and they all use the same size media. I can buy in large quantities and save money. While you may not get to the point where you are buying to support a whole fish room, you still have to change our your media and will find it a lot easier to use one or two types.

Good luck and best regards...
 
I use the 400 along with magnum 350 for polishing. the 400 is a great filter they have the extra media containers that I filed with filter sponges and never change them out I only clean them in old tank water. I dont use the cartridge media that is filed with carbon and would not recomend using it either. You do not need to change out your filter media unless it is falling apart just rinse it in old tank water when you do a water change. If for some reason you would need carbon then just add some to one of those nylon media bags and drop it into the back of the filter. Good luck
 
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