Bio wheel interfere with CO2?
- Thread starter Fresh04
- Start date
emoore, how far below the surface of the water in the tank, is the top of the Filstar? I have found that my Filstar runs and prime's much better when it is lower.
Fresh, any type of bio-wheel is a detriment to CO2 injection. It will not effect the amount of Carbonic Acid derived from the dosing of Excel, so you have two options......keep the bio-wheel and dose the Excel or go with DIY CO2 and lose the bio-wheel.
Len
Fresh, any type of bio-wheel is a detriment to CO2 injection. It will not effect the amount of Carbonic Acid derived from the dosing of Excel, so you have two options......keep the bio-wheel and dose the Excel or go with DIY CO2 and lose the bio-wheel.
Len
djlen, the top of my filstar is about 2.5 feet below the top surface of my tank. It starts really easily when I just clean the filter and not the hoses (using the quick disconnects) but when I clean the hoses and have to try to restart the syphon, I have a few problems. The syphon never want to keep going. I usually have to fiddle with it for 15 minutes to get a continous syphon.
Starting canisters, HOB, ect
I start my canister filter with an aquarium vacuum. Just pop the input uptube off the filter and stick the small end of the vacuum tube against it (doesn't have to fit tight). Lower the whole vacuum under the water level until it's full of water, then lift the wide end out upside down. All the water in the vacuum will shoot up and into the filter. Doing this once should be enough to prime most filters if the canister already has water in it.
Regarding HOB filters, you can keep it, just put it on a timer so it runs at night. Then you get a lot of filtration at night when churn doesn't matter, and a calm surface during the day to keep in the co2. Just make sure that the filter side of the U tube is below water level so the U tube keeps water in it when it's off, otherwise it'll syphon out the filter and de-prime itself.
I start my canister filter with an aquarium vacuum. Just pop the input uptube off the filter and stick the small end of the vacuum tube against it (doesn't have to fit tight). Lower the whole vacuum under the water level until it's full of water, then lift the wide end out upside down. All the water in the vacuum will shoot up and into the filter. Doing this once should be enough to prime most filters if the canister already has water in it.
Regarding HOB filters, you can keep it, just put it on a timer so it runs at night. Then you get a lot of filtration at night when churn doesn't matter, and a calm surface during the day to keep in the co2. Just make sure that the filter side of the U tube is below water level so the U tube keeps water in it when it's off, otherwise it'll syphon out the filter and de-prime itself.
Turning off a filter for significant intervals is a good guarantee of no biofiltration. The filter will function as a mechanical filter only. Bad practice IMHO. Not in my fish tanks, thank you very much.
Ok, I mothballed the biowheel. Hopefully I'll see the plants grow a little better. The magnum's return plumbing isn't very helpful as far as preventing surface disturbance. They have the diffuser, but its not deep enough under the surface. Perhaps its there to do just that, disturb the surface. I ended up tilting the diffuser, so that will help as well. The water on the surface has movement, but no waves, so hopefully that will help.
biowheel+C02
Just following the discussion on biowheels and CO2.
I just set up a 29 gallon planted tank and because the eheim 2213 I ordered came without some of the parts, I was forced to improvise and came up with and emperor 280 which does have a biowheel.
However, there is a feature whereby you can adjust the flow so the surface disturbance is almost nonexistent.
Is there some other issue visa vi C02 and biowheels apart from surface agitation?
I suppose I could get the replacemant parts for the eheim..and then figure out how to set it up..lol
Just following the discussion on biowheels and CO2.
I just set up a 29 gallon planted tank and because the eheim 2213 I ordered came without some of the parts, I was forced to improvise and came up with and emperor 280 which does have a biowheel.
However, there is a feature whereby you can adjust the flow so the surface disturbance is almost nonexistent.
Is there some other issue visa vi C02 and biowheels apart from surface agitation?
I suppose I could get the replacemant parts for the eheim..and then figure out how to set it up..lol
For optimum absorption of gas, there should be zero surface disturbance of the water. Bio wheels cause a direct conflict with this principle. It can be overcome with an increase in injection but is an unnecessary expense.
In a small tank where a product like Seachem Excel is used to administer Carbonic Acid to the water table, a bio wheel causes much less a problem.
Len
In a small tank where a product like Seachem Excel is used to administer Carbonic Acid to the water table, a bio wheel causes much less a problem.
Len
