Benefits of bio-wheels

A

attiladahun

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Mar 11, 2005
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when i got my marineland emperor 280, the box touted the benefits of its bio- wheel system. i guess what is supposed to happen is the beneficial bacteria is supposed to grow on it better since it is exposed to air for half the time and to water for the other half. This all sounds well and good, but the directions for the filter said something to the effect of "it is good and natural if the bio-wheel slows down and gets full of gunk because that means it is laden with good bacteria". Well, ive had the thing running for almost 3 years, and the bio-wheel has slowed a little, but theres no gunk.

My questions:
1. Should there be gunk?
2. Is the wheel really full of invisibly small bacteria colonies?
3. Should I try to jump-start bacteria growth with bottled live bacteria from a pet store?
4. Is the bio-wheel really all that great or should I replace its function in the filter with some of that porous stone matrix media?
 
1. Not necessarily. My old BioWheels aren't that "gunky" either.
2. Yes it is. That doesn't mean it is superior to other biological media, like the ceramic rings and/or sponges in the Aquaclears. It just provides additional surface area for bacteria to colonize. Some swear that the BioWheel's contact with oxygen makes it superior to the biological filtration in other brands, but I really think that it's mostly a gimmick. It works well, but no better than some other brands.
3. If your tank is cycled and stable, save your money. There is no need to do that, and BioSpira is the only product that works with ANY degree of reliability- and even that is hit-or-miss.
4. DON'T pull out the BioWheel. It has bacteria growing all over it and removing it would be detrimental to the bio filter in your tank. Don't clean it either- the only cleaning that should ever be done to it is around the little pegs on the ends, and only if the wheel stops turning. If it turns slowly, that is fine, don't mess with it. If you want, you can use the extra media basket to hold some ceramic rings or something, but honestly some filter floss would probably be more beneficial.
 
While I agree w/ SM's statements, I will add that for some people, biowheels are not the answer.

If you grow plants and use CO2, biowheels may introduce enough agitation to keep you from being able to maintain adequate CO2 levels. In this case, you can use nylon potscrubbers instead of ceramic media in the canister. There's a lot (orders of magnitude more) SA on potscrubbers than what you get on ceramics, bioballs etc.
 
yeah, right now i just have the bio-wheel for biological filtration, zilch for chemical since the only chemicals i use is stress coat and anything in the fish food, and then i have one half of a filter basket in each basket slot with a bunch of floss packed between them.

should i then take out half of the filter floss in favor of ceramic rings? I'd still have a good amount of floss, but i'd also have the ceramic rings.
 
i have no plants and don't plan on any, so agitation won't be a problem.
sorry i couldn't get this in the last post, it was too late by the time i saw your post, squawkbert
 
If you grow plants and use CO2, biowheels may introduce enough agitation to keep you from being able to maintain adequate CO2 levels.
Click to expand...

Excellent point Squawkbert- can't believe I forgot to mention this. I wouldn't use a Biowheel filter on a planted tank either, for the reason Squawkbert mentioned. Both my planted tanks use one canister filter and 1 Aquaclear filter (I had upgraded these tanks and was not on the budget to also upgrade the canisters). This combination has been working out great for me for my planted tanks.
 
IMO, they are the biggest marketing scheme, of marginal results that folks have jumped on in years.
 
severum mama said:
Excellent point Squawkbert- can't believe I forgot to mention this. I wouldn't use a Biowheel filter on a planted tank either, for the reason Squawkbert mentioned. Both my planted tanks use one canister filter and 1 Aquaclear filter (I had upgraded these tanks and was not on the budget to also upgrade the canisters). This combination has been working out great for me for my planted tanks.
Click to expand...

My planted tank has a biowheel and my plants seem fine. I have the hagen co2 thingy, and I try to keep the water topped off. It doesn't seem to be a problem. Am I wrong?
 
I wouldn't call the biowheel a gimmick, it works off of the same principle as a wet/dry filter and does a good job as the biological filtration. It's lightweight, takes up hardly any space, and never needs to be replaced unless damaged, pretty good for a biological filter component.

The bio-wheel does cause a good amount of water surface agitation that can gas off CO2 if you inject it, you'll still gain some benefits from the extra CO2 but you'll lose some. If you're not injecting CO2 it doesn't matter.
 
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