I have an idea for the BIO wheel.

1) there may be a lot of build up inside the biowheel, as slime collects in the folds of the pleats. You can shake this out somewhat by swishing in used tank water and knocking on the wheel to dislodge the gunk.

2) check to see that the pleats run straight across, if they are twisted the water will run under and not push the wheel. Untwist if necessary.
 
If you want your bio-wheel motorized, get an emperor or a bio-wheel pro system. They're powered by a spray bar so you shouldn't have a problem with it stopping.
 
I've had many of the Penguin filters with the Bio-Wheel. Sometimes, the intake tube and impeller would get a little crusted over and the Bio-Wheel would act wierd. Check it out. It would't take but a little bit of crust either. It used to baffle me too. I'd change the pads and still it wouldn't work until I discovered about keeping the intake and impeller clean. I never changed any of the Bio-Wheels. I had this tank running like this for five years and I gave it to a friend of mine. She's had it running for three years now with the same filters and Bio-Wheels. One of the things that I like about the Bio-Wheel is that when you change filter pads and clean the filter, you don't lose a lot of your good bacteria. Another thing that I like about the Bio-Wheel is that you could overstock the tank and it keeps up without any noticeable ammonia or nitrite problems. This was a planted tank too. I never got any pearling but the plants grew well. I just added more CO2 and CO2 is cheap too. There's even some pad kits that you can add any product you wanted and still kept the frame but replaced the pad. I used Seachem's Purigen sometimes.
 
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You want pearling every week or so. With out it, the tank wont really be 'normal'. Adding more C02 is a wast. Sure it might be cheep but whats the point. Save up that money, and get a cainster. Or just get rid of the Bio Wheel. Seachem Purigen is a chemical media, with I dont like using. It is not needed, and can mess up a tank.
 
The main point that I wanted to make was that when people notice that their Bio-Wheel really slows down, starts and stops, or even stops turning alltogether and there is a new filter cartridge in it; to clean the intake tube and the impeller and it should start back up turning. I've seen this problem asked many times before.
The tank that I was refering to was 24 inches tall. It was too expensive to buy enough lighting to even think about getting pearling.
The Bio-Wheels added much needed oxygen to this tall tank.
Many plants flowered in this tank. Something was right, don't you think?
What's wrong with Purigen? It doesn't remove trace elements, it is reusable and sure makes the water look clean. Many people use this stuff.
 
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