Bio-Wheel 150 Filter

[sticky]

Would it be ok to run a 150 Bio-Wheel on my tank with filters if I remove the bio-wheels from it?

[Sweetpea]

I use one on my 10g. I removed the biowheel and added a polyfilter. It works nicely for me!

[sticky]

I got it, but I heard the bio-wheel was bad, but I wanted to add it to help filter my water some and agitate the surface water for me.

Thanks I will look into picking up 4 polyfilters for it and put it back in place, minus the bio wheels.

[sticky]

Could too many poly filters hurt the system? Reason I ask is I have the ability to adapt a poly filter inside my refugium before the water flows into the main tank where plants will be. I didn't know if a filter they may hurt the refugium by reducing too many things for the exchanges and change over in the refugium.

[Sweetpea]

I don't know if using too many polyfilters would hurt... but I wouldn't think so. Maybe someone else can offer some input on that one!

I should have asked before - what size is the tank and are you running a skimmer on it? If you have a skimmer, I wouldn't think you need to use a polyfilter at all - you could just use the filter to move water for you. (I don't have a skimmer, so the polyfilter keeps my nitrates under control.) If you don't have a skimmer, one polyfilter would likely be sufficient for a small tank, just check it often to get a feel for how long it will last in your tank. I change mine about every two weeks.

Hope this helps!

[KG]

Can someone point me to where it has been found that biowheels are "bad" for SW? I've seen several folks make this comment but can't seem to get it past the common sense part of me.

KG

[Sweetpea]

The way it was explained to me was that the live sand and live rock contain all the "goodies" needed to keep the water levels steady and that the added bacterial colonies in the biowheel can throw it out of balance. Well, it was explained to me a little better than this, but I hope my version's clear enough to get the main point!

[dakar]

Biowheels being wet/dry means they can only support aerobic bateria colonies .... sandbards (both shallow and deep) will house aerobic and anaerobic (oxygen deprived) bacteria. The balance could be upset from the natural chain of events as the bio-wheel will convert ammo --> nitrite --> Nitrate and dump it into the tank as there is no anaerobic areas to consume nitrates.

Maybe look at it this way, if the biowheel consumes most of the ammo and N02 from the tank, there may not be sufficient nutrients to feed the LR/SB bacteria, throws the whole balance out of whack.

[Sweetpea]

AHA! That's it! I knew I didn't say it quite right (not having the technical/biological aspect impairs comprehension for sure), lol! I need to keep this on file for future reference... thanks a bunch for your concise, yet easy to understand, explanation!

[sticky]

So with that being said, would adding a poly filter where water flows from the skimmer to the refugium be helpful or harmful?

Seeing as the Poly Filter can remove ammonia and other things.