Bio wheel problem

[physicsdude]

Hi- I have had this penguin 150 going for about 2 months now, but have noticed that the wheel moves like a few times every hour, and that is not a complete spin, but rather a few notches on it. The flow rate is strong and the intake tube has no blockage. I know you can call Marineland's hotline, but I am just curious what fellow penguin users recommend. The bio wheel never needs replacing, but it makes me wonder at times as it the reason why it does not move is due to the bacteria and water buildup. Anyway, as always, I would appreciate any input.

[SCFatz]

I'm having the same issue fwiw...been running fine since march but over the last month it stalls.

I've checked the obvious stuff..tomorrow I'm going to pull it apart and clean it (if possible)..I think it may be an effeciancy issue,that is to say it's pumping,just not well enough to keep the wheel spinning I think.

I'll bump this again if it works out...(or if it doesn't).

[afishyonados]

Have you both cleaned out the impeller hosing and the impeler?

[afishyonados]

That was supposed to say housing...

[gheitman]

Another thing to look at is the filter intake tube. If that gets somewhat clogged it will reduce the flow rate and slow the BIO-Wheel. I clean the one on my Penguin BIO-Wheel 170 once a month.

[physicsdude]

Hi- I got it working- I had to shut it off, soak the wheel int he aquarium while I took out and cleaned the filter cartridges. Then I used an old toothbrush and cleaned the area directly below the bio-wheel. It was covered with slime, it needed a cleaning there. Finally, I took out the purple bio-wheel bearings and cleaned those witgh a toothbrush. Now, it works great.
One other thing I noticed is that if the water level in the filter churned up by the impeller is not flwoing roughly right below the top of the filter, then the intake tube itself is somehow clogged. Those are the details that I have noticed. So, I hope this helps someone else. Thanks for all the replies

[couplescaddy]

yeah, all you need to do is clean the wheel track, when algea and gunk get built up it creates too much friction, i actually had my wheel dry and killed all the bacteria, i had to start with a new wheel, it sucked! but now i just clean everything off everytime i do a water change and no more problems.

[Jarred Darque]

Another problem I see is that the filters have an overflow outlet wehre if the water lvl gets to high it will bypass the filter and bio wheel and dump right back into the tank. The most common cause for this is a filter that needs to be replaced or thouroughly cleanedm I see it happen normally withing a few hours of tnak maintnance (moving around the gravel/deco etc.) but when it is overflowing, it is losing too much flow so it doesnt spin the bio wheel either.

[Heathrjoy]

I've had to take the brackets off of the sides of the wheel, remove the little plastic knobs and scrub all with a toothbrush as someone else mentioned above. Icky gunk builds up in the worst places. I used to add a bit of salt to my fw set up with every water change, but started noticing too much build up from it around the wheel. I still add a bit of salt, but not nearly as often.

When I feed my fish I always check to see if the wheel is spinning. If it's not I give it a whirl and it usually keeps going...for a while anyway.

[SCFatz]

Just cleaned mine as well...swished the filters and pulled the impeller for cleaning as well.The wheel "holders'' as well as the axel were clean.

I have swished the filters before with no wheel movement improvement so I'm guessing the big help was pulling the impeller (very easy) and cleaning the gunk....but I wouldn't call it real dirty.

Either way it running great now.