hssea

I noticed in my daughters fish tank that one of her two bio wheels wasnt spinning. (she's 19). Anyway come to find out its been "stuck" for "weeks". Just a little rinsing (in old aquarium water) should get that running again. My question is with the non spinning bio wheel will that harm the aquarium water because the bacteria wasn't being exposed to the water. Should she give that wheel a good rinsing. Water conditions are amm 0 nitrites0 nitrates 40. She needs do start doing daily 25% water changes to get that level down slowly...correct?

Nate McFin

As long as the levels are ok dont worry about it. Mine was stuck for a few days and I didnt see a difference. IME the biowheels are a gimmick.(and a poorly designed one at that)

harpua2002

Sometimes it helps to clean the pegs on the ends of the Biowheel. If you're going to rinse/clean the Biowheel, I'd recommend doing so in a bucket of old tank water.

hssea

thanks

Jark

I would just do a normal water change and dunk the wheel in the dirty water bucket a few times to rinse off the dead stuff. Sounds like the other filter is making up for the stuck one so far.

I rinse mine when they get slow by just dunking them during water changes in the bucket. I also scrub the pegs every week. I use a tooth brush to scrub the pegs and the wheel holder every week. With hard water they slow down fast so they have to get scrubbed.