Decrease Surface Agitation with a Biowheel?

[MidnightPyro]

I have a Penguin 120 (30 gallon one) on my 29 gallon aquarium. I bought a Hagen CO2 System as an alternative to running a DIY pop bottle setup, atleast for now. I was wondering if the biowheel would cause a problem and lose a lot of CO2, or whether it was sort of a moot point that wouldn't effect too much.

If it is a problem, is there any easy way to fix the problem to decrease surface agitiation, or any "quick fix"?

Thanks!

 

[NJ Devils Fan]

I would just make sure you're water is a high as possible. I have an Emperor 400 along with a rena filstar xp3 on my 72g planted tank and I am not experiencing problems with my CO2 because I make sure I keep the water as high as possible. Yes, no matter how you look at it, there will be slightly more surface movement from a filter with bio wheels than one without them. You can change the amount of flow to them as well as making sure your water level is high to help keep surface movement to a minimum.

 

[echoofformless]

Surface agitation isn't as bad as people make it out to be. After all, there is carbon dioxide in the air we breathe anyway, so the little that escapes is actually replaced. Plus any that you put in manually is really supplemental - it serves to make seriously lush growth but it isn't even necessary to have normal growth.

The point is, don't worry so much about the agitation. As long as you're adding additional co2, you will get benefits no matter what.

 

[daveedka]

Gas exchange with atmoshere will put co2 at somewhere between 2-5 ppm, in most high light planted tanks we are trying to achieve 20+ ppm. So your bio-wheel is fighting your co2 efforts. I removed all wheels from my penguins end Emp's when I started co2 injection. I then put sponges in the outflow ramps to further dampen surface agitation. My big tank help at about 22 ppm co2 with 70 bubbles per minute fully diffused (homemade power reactor) I recently took the emp 400 off of the big tank and replaced it with a cannister. I left the co2 aat 70 bpm and achived 40+ ppm in a couple of hours. The surface turbulence from an EMp with no wheels and sponges in the out put essentially gassed off about half of the co2 I was injecting. I am now trying to regulate things to the level I want, but the bottom line is that the emps and penguins (great filter IMO) are no conducive to co2 injection IMO.

Now for the practicality of the situation. IF you can achieve the level of co2 you want, and co2 costs aren't eating you up then there is no need to change. I'm neurotic about perfect results, but the practical facts are if it works for you then don't worry about losing a little bit of gas. Co2 really isn't all that expensive once you own the set-up.

Dave