Bio wheel filter?

[ilikefish]

hello i have a penguin bio wheel filter 170 in my 29 gallon. Iv heard numerous times that it produces tons of nitrate which i have kind of noticed. What can i do to fix this? Dont have enough money to buy a new filter. Can i just take the bio wheel out or what. help. thanks

 

[c0mf0rt]

Yeah that's what I did.... They recommended the same thing to me.... just get rid of the wheels....

 

[loganj]

I'd pull one wheel...wait a week...and pull the other one. That way, you won't impact the biofilter so much at once. Do you have LR in the tank? If so, and you have 30lbs or so, you probably don't need any extra biofiltration anyway.

 

[XXFirefighter]

yank the wheels like logan said...
I run my tank at home with no wheels or folters, just use the baskets filled with carbon...

 

[Berzer]

I had always thought that the bio-wheels were meant to do the same as bio-balls in a wet/dry. Is it that the wheel collects too much gunk on it to build nitrate problems? I thought the wheel is supposed to convert ammonia, nitrite etc.. into nitrate, or am i wrong?

 

[sirfishmaster]

no you are right, which is why its aq bad idea to keep them....nothing is removing the nitrate....i had similar filters and had nitrate problem, added more live rock and yanked the wheels, and now my nitrates are managable

doug

 

[loganj]

Biowheels are fantastic in FW because nitrates aren't such a problem there. All the FW tanks that I have set up use either Emp 280's or 400's depending on the tank size. Nitrates in SW will cause you problems. Not so much in a FO tank, but many of the inverts we keep in reef tanks are sensitive to nitrate. It also feeds algae.

 

[MarkLehr]

Please make sure that you have live rock in your aquarium before you remove the biowheel. Live rock is certianly the desired choice of biological filtration for your aquraium. However, you must have some source of biological filter. I did not see anything in your post or in your profile which suggests you have live rock. If you don't, then keep the biowheel.
For a 29 gallon FO tank, I see no problem at all with a biowheel filter to process Ammonia. Regular water changes will keep your Nitrates low for a FO tank. However, if you have live rock, this is much better & you can just remove the biowheels.