guppy07

Hey I am looking for advice from people who own Bio-wheel filters. I just bought it so I am not intrested in reading why I should buy a different filter I have read some great reviews on here of people who love them. I have read some not so good things about people who can't stand them. Sounds like mostly the people who don't like them do not do "regular" maintenance. I am wondering what is meant by that. Is there something I should be doing to my penguin weekly/bi-weekly besides changing the media cartridge? I have a 10 gal and am using the penguin 100. It is already set up and running. Right now I have the free filter cartridge in it. Are the marineland cartridges alright. I was reading somewhere that you can make your own media cartridges. Floss and sponge If some one wants to take a second and explain that would be awesome! Everything I read is a bit over my head still. Thanks for all the help thus far. I can't wait to get some fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cody

..i have a bio wheel i love it..its not to noisy..works good..i notice the wheels dont spin as good as the should somtimes but other wise i love it

metal_fish

I love my bio wheel too, Im not exactly sure about making your own cartridge but reg maintaince is when clean the filter and impeller just scrub it with hot water and an old tooth brush monthly. Others with more knowledge about your questions are sure to help

Butterfly

When you do maintenance please rinse your filter parts with used tank water this will preserve the beneficial bacterial that is growing on them
The filter cartridges can be rinsed the same way and continue to use them until they start to fall apart( I know manufacturer says to change them more often but thats so they make more money), then put a fresh one in and a piece of the old one to seed it and your good to go. I believe if the bio-wheel is rinsed about once a month in used tank water it will continue to turn as it's suppose to and not be noisy. Hope that helps
Carol

COBettaCouple

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113808

we buy this and cut it to fit our filters. Saves lots of money and no being forced to use cartridges with carbon in them.

jsalemi

What do you do -- tear apart an old cartridge and attach the blue pad to it?

COBettaCouple

in the 5g hex tanks, I don't use a cartridge. I just have the pad cut to fit and it stays in the little well, doing a great job.

jsalemi

Hmm, not sure that would work in the 100 -- probably have to use an old filter frame to keep it in place.

Drea

Can you explain why no carbon is okay? So many off the shelf filters are built with the carbon in them. Even my aqua clear has sponge, carbon, and the zeolite crystals in their set up?

jsalemi

To carbon or not to carbon is a continuous topic of vigorous discussion in the fishkeeping community. Carbon is great for removing meds, toxic compounds (other than the parts of the cycle), metals, tannins, and stuff like that from the water. But in a mature tank, all of that stuff is pretty much gone (or very minimal), and keeping the carbon in can in some cases do more harm than good. Especially if you don't change it often enough -- there's a danger it'll just release all the stored toxins right back into the water.

Plus, carbon will remove some of the metals that plants need to grow on (i.e., iron). But there are carbon-like substances, like Seachem's Renew, that have a similar effect as carbon but don't remove the beneficial metals that plants use.

And of course, you have to remove it when you're putting any meds into the tank for them to be effective.

I usually keep it in, at least in one filter, and change it every 3-4 weeks, but the arguments for not keeping it in all the time have merit too.

Drea

Thanks, I do change mine according to aqua clear directions. They even tell you to not change all the media at the same time, and when you wash it, do in water change/tank water. Which I had already found out about that from FL Forum. FLF is the best

COBettaCouple

We have a container of this carbon:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113805
since it lasts much longer than regular carbon. It's great stuff. We just don't run carbon unless we need to remove meds or something from the water. No chance then of forgetting to remove it when using meds and one less thing to maintain in the tanks.

jsalemi

Yea, that Black Diamond stuff is great. Marineland uses that in their own penguin/emperor cartridges, actually.

Someone here recently turned me on to Seachem's Renew -- works like carbon, but without the downside of carbon. I'll probably be switching to that in the future.

COBettaCouple

i've heard renew is pretty good, just haven't tried it out yet.