BIO-Wheel?
- Thread starter Beacious
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Endgame319
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Bio-wheels are used by hob filters as a place for your bacteria colonies to grow. They are not needed to use bio-spira, but they work great.
dralarms
Aquarium Advice Addict
The bio wheel is part of the penguin/emperor filter system. It allows the good bacteria to build up on the wheel and the water running across it provides eats for the bacteria. And no you do not have to have bio spiria for it to work or have bio wheels to us bio spiria. 
Just to add a little more info:
The "good" bacteria aka ammonia/nitrite eating bacteria aka nitrifying bacteria live on surfaces, not in the water itself (although they will float around in it for a short while when they go to find a place to live). Thats why adding water from someone else's tank won't help cycle your tank, but taking gravel or filter media or decorations will.
The BioWheels are folded paper basically, but because they are are folded, there's more surface area and more bacteria can live there (think apartment building vs a ranch home). Plus, the good bacteria need oxygen, and since the BioWheels spin in the tank and air, the bacteria on there get more oxygen and the colony grows even larger.
The "good" bacteria aka ammonia/nitrite eating bacteria aka nitrifying bacteria live on surfaces, not in the water itself (although they will float around in it for a short while when they go to find a place to live). Thats why adding water from someone else's tank won't help cycle your tank, but taking gravel or filter media or decorations will.
The BioWheels are folded paper basically, but because they are are folded, there's more surface area and more bacteria can live there (think apartment building vs a ranch home). Plus, the good bacteria need oxygen, and since the BioWheels spin in the tank and air, the bacteria on there get more oxygen and the colony grows even larger.
sjogren1
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Bio-wheels work very well in fish only tanks and don't appear to cause any major problems in low light, non CO2 tanks, but are not recommended for planted tanks adding CO2. I've not yet tried it, but by all accounts Bio-Spira appears to work well for tank cycle issues. There are other ways to cycle. Seachem has a new product out called Stability.
http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Stability.html
http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Stability.html
Thanx for the link sjogren1; unfortunately the Seachem product doesn't contain all the correct nitrifying bacteria; its been discovered nitrobacter does not help to cycle a tank. The right ones appear to be nitrospira, nitrosospira and nitrosomonas.
sjogren1
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Thank you for that heads up. Look like I'll be sticking to lots of mulm and fast growing plants. Nothing like the old-fashioned way! 
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