Biowheels... what are they made of?

[giles]

I'm in the process of planning a wet/dry and was wondering what material 'biowheels' are made of? Is it fiberglass? If anyone has any imput, it would be greatly appreciated. If anyone knows what it is, do you know where it can be purchased?

Thank-you,

Rob

 

[lmw80]

This website should help you out:

http://www.marineland.com/science/biowheel.asp

marineland makes both the emporer and the penguin biowheel models.

 

[giles]

Thanks for the link Lori, but marineland doesn't seem to eager to reveal what the actual wheel is made of. If I can identify the material, I can incorporate it for my own uses. If anyone can help... please let me know.

thank-you.

 

[JProx]

giles, if it helps any..

marineland makes a line of wet/dry sump systems, called the Tidepool. they incorporate the biowheel in the wet/dry section. if you are hurting for design ideas, check them out.

i have no idea what the material is, it's very porous and has enough longevity to probably be fiberglass, but it just doesn't feel like it. you could try emailing marineland and asking them, they just might give you a generic response though.

lastly if you go to www.thatpetplace.com and do a search for bio wheel, you will get 2 pages of hits, the second page has all the bio wheels marineland makes, and all are under 5bucks.. in this case it might be simpler/cheaper to not reinvent the wheel.

 

[giles]

OK...

I have loads of design ideas, one of which would incorporate a material similar to that found in a biowheel. That is why I am asking. I suppose, any material would suit as long as it doesn't rot, but at the same time stay moist. Biowheels do a great job, but I think I can make a better system. (but you are right, it won't be simple...that is half the fun) cheap it will be though. I'm the King of Cheap.

 

[giles]

OK...

I have loads of design ideas, one of which would incorporate a material similar to that found in a biowheel. That is why I am asking. I suppose, any material would suit as long as it doesn't rot, but at the same time stay moist. Biowheels do a great job, but I think I can make a better system. (but you are right, it won't be simple...that is half the fun) cheap it will be though. I'm the King of Cheap.

 

[JProx]

well.. there's a bit more to the material in the biowheel, and all biological filteration medium, not only does it have to last a long time, and stay moist it has to have alot of surface area, for bacteria colonies. bio balls for example [taken from that petplace]

'One gallon of Bio-Sponge Balls has enough surface area to provide biological filtration for approximately 50 gallons of marine life. There are approximately 40 Bio-Sponge Balls per gallon and each Bio-Sponge Ball has a surface area of approximately 75 square inches.'

True you could use almost anything for this function, some people use piles of plastic drinking straws cut in half, others use straw/hay for bio-media, some other people use sponges, or live rock. there are a bunch of choices, if anything don't limit yourself right now on the biowheel materal. worse case scenario you could always throw in a few handfuls of Bio Chem Stars, [they're pretty much a sponge shaped like a star and provide more surface area than bioballs, mentioned above] to solve the problem.

 

[giles]

so...well.. thank-you for the mini biological filtration lesson . I fully understand all of my choices. Considering this, I would like to

incorporate a material similar to that found in a biowheel

. If anyone can add any insight to my original question

what material 'biowheels' are made of?

I would be wicked pleased.