# BioWheel - Good or Bad? Ring OFF



## Freerider (Nov 8, 2006)

So i just recently moved my Biowheel pro 30 to my planted tank and i have seen in the past alot of people giving advice to remove them. I plan to run mine with a 'T' fitting off my canister filter but before i goto trouble to mod the 2 together i thought i would seek advice from the planted tank community. I hate to get rid of it because i did buy it already (last year). 

I have it on a 30 g powered by a fluval 1 internal and i also have a fluval 204 on the tank. I dont use co2, and the tank is planted with way to many vals, some java moss and fern, anaubis, and a few crypts. 
Fish load is fairly low.

Does it hurt or help this setup?


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## LilLou (Apr 23, 2006)

I switched from emperor 400 to cannister. I am much happier with the canister filter for a planted tank.

If you start using CO2 definitely make the switch to the canister but you should be okay with using it on a non CO2 tank.


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## Freerider (Nov 8, 2006)

LilLou
No CO2 in my setup.


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## LilLou (Apr 23, 2006)

I know I was posting to 2 different places with the almost identical questions. If you do start to use the CO2 I would suggest switching to a canister as you will save much CO2 that way. When I realized I edited the post. The HOB started to get a little costly when I was going through filters once a month. And I didn't like the fact that I had no real choices when it came to altering the media in the filter cartridge. The best thing I came up with was ripping the old filters apart So I had the plastic shell and using a glue gun to stick a piece of cut blue foam to it for just mechanical filtration.


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## Freerider (Nov 8, 2006)

LilLou
The BioWheel Pro is not a cartridges style HOB. It is only the Biowheel attached to a housing that can be fed from a powerhead or canister filter. Not that is matters for this discussion but it sounds like your reasons are b/c of expensive cartridges that a typical HOB would use.


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## LilLou (Apr 23, 2006)

Ooops, I really screwed this post up. Like I tell my 9 yr old son, read the whole questions before you answer. Nobody tell him about this!!! Now that I have reread the post in its entirety here's my opinion if it is still valid. 

With the low fish load you shouldn't need the extra bio filtration provided by the biowheel. You should be fine with just the Fluval 204. If you want the extra circulation you can use the internal also. I know the feeling about not using it because I have a Magnum HOB, and Emperor 400 sitting on the side lines presently. But you live and you learn. Either way it won't hurt or help anything by runnign them. Just a cleaner look without the extra stuff in and on the tank.

I don't dislike the Emperor I dislike the choice of cartridges I have with it. Basically 1 or 2. I also have an Aquaclear on my sons tank and I have many more options with media in that filter than I do in my Emperor. The price didn't bother me as I ripped the filter apart to glue some foam on it after it was dead. More a PITA than anything else. I just felt that if I was filtering with Peat moss then it was counterproductive to have charcoal sucking up what I just added to the water.


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## K20A2 (Aug 12, 2006)

If your not going to be running pressurized CO2 then why take it off? From all the information I gathered, the biowheel allows some of the CO2 to be wasted. I didn’t take it off until I hooked up my pressurized system.


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## jeffk (Apr 14, 2006)

Yea keep it on until/if you decide to inject co2.


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## Freerider (Nov 8, 2006)

I have had so much success without CO2 i dont think i will ever buy a co2 system. I might try do it yourself CO2 to see if it really makes a difference but havent seen the need for it yet. If my plants grow any faster i will have to do maintenacne twice weekly, something i dont want to do. I am actually liking the way the biowheel pro outputs the water compare to a HOB, as it seems to be a wave like output which causes a shimmer in the tank and also really helps remove the build up that occurs when my Vals overgrow the surface.


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

I for the life of me can't believe how hard the "bio-wheel filters degas CO2" myth is propagated.

ANY tank that is open top is going to lose WAY much more CO2 than is lost from the small amount of water that's sprayed over that little wheel. And that's not a problem. Take one look at the ADA gallery where ALL tanks are open top and plants grow great.

I personally don't recommend a bio wheel filter because I don't think it's an effective design for an aquarium. It is based off (as I understand it) the giant rotating wheels that waste water plants use. In massively scaled down form in an aquarium, it just isn't any more effective than a canister design. (An Aquaclear HOB is basically a canister design.)


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## LilLou (Apr 23, 2006)

Going from a biowheel to a canister I can tell you that instead of cycling the pH controller on and off every 5 minutes with the biowheel it went to once or twice an hour with the canister. Using the spraybar provided with the canister keeps the surface of the tank less agitated which keeps CO2 loss lower. Now I do agree any tank with an open top will outgas some CO2 but not to the same extent that the biowheel did.

I also doubled the life of my CO2 cylinder. Went from 3 months to 6 months between refills


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