There are actually 2 types of bacteria needed to break down waste. Both will culture where the conditions are right. Becasue both bacteria need oxygen they should in thoery colonize better out of the water like a wet/dry or bio wheels. If you think there is a problem Just test the water. If you have no ammonia, no nitrite and the presents of nitrate then you have bacteria somewhere.
Bio Wheel
- Thread starter nattybrack
- Start date
I have 6 Penquen 330 filters and I don't even bother to put on the biowheels. My water tested negative for ammonia and nitrite and I know that there is adequate bio filtration in the system. Good water current and aeration is the key to good biological activities.
Well it takes like 4 weeks to get the bio wheel fully matured, or at least thats what hte box said. Mine got darker in color and slowed down so it doesnt spin as fast.
the bio-wheels on my 125 gallon turned brown within 2 months due to the high bio-load the tank was carrying with two full grown Oscars and several convicts. My brother has a 75 gallon with two Oscars and after one year his wheels looked like they were brand new. I told him it may be because of the ammonia removing chips he mixed in with his carbon so he removed them and after about a month his wheels started turning brown
mlazuka, I bet you that's what it is. I added so much stuff to those cartridges, I wouldn't be surprised if I added some sort of ammonia removing material. I'm gonna try refilling the cartridges with different material. Many thanks to all for the input. I'm gonna try adding small gravel and some aquaclear sponges (used in the bottom of the filter). Any other suggestions of good media for the cartridges?
here is my 2cents worth. biological colonies only will multiply and grow if there is a need for them to grow, ie a bio-load of ammonia or nitrite, if there is no bioload or a small bioload (from other filters witrh biological filtration) there will not be that much growth on new filters because your old filters already have the bio-load partily taken care of, that is why NATTYBRACK had a small amount of bacteria on his/her biowheels, because the whisper is the established filter and had a lot of bacteria on it already. i would think that if you took off the whisper filter or took out the biological foam then you would receive a growth of bacteria on the bio wheels.
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