Do Bio-Wheels Hurt Plants?

[Scott1980]

A friend of mine told me that Bio Wheels pulled necessary bacteria from plants that needed it and hurt plants eventually.

[Fruitbat]

I can't imagine that being the case. A nice colony of bacteria will build up on the BioWheel but it won't 'pull' bacteria from the water. There will be plenty of bacteria available in your substrate for any needs the plants might have.

[An t-iasg]

I agree with Fruitbat. A bio-wheel will culture bacteria quickly because of the water moving over it, but it will not stop bacteria from growing in the substrate. I had a bio-wheel and a planted tank for a short time. The plants grew nicely. I think (it's been a while!) that plants like nitrates, and the bio-wheel will not pull nitrates from the water. Only a water change (or lots of plants) can do that.

[Bearfan]

I've had a Penguin Emporer in my planted tank from day 1 and had no problems.

What a Bio-Wheel will do is reduce the amount of CO2 available to the plants. I run Bio-Wheel filters on my tanks for a couple of reasons. First off they really boost the Oxygen levels in the tank. Second I can really clean out my cannister filters and not worry about losing half my biological filtration. I just have to inject more CO2 because of the Bio-Wheel.

[djlen3]

A bio wheel would be a problem mainly in a planted tank with injected CO2 as they disturb the surface of the water and would aid in gassing the CO2 out of the tank.

Len