wizardfitz

Have the 10 gal and 38 gal running well. started up the 90 gal and trying to get the nitrogen cycle going. my question is do i need a bio wheel on any of these tanks? the 10 has a tetra 20-40 filter, the 38 has a fluval 405 and the 90 has a fluval FX5. new to fish and just want to get things right so the guys dont stress out

mr. Clown Loach

bio-wheels help just by holding a place bacteria can get oxygen and a food supply thay really do help though

namehater

biowheels arent a necessity at all, they are just in place to hold extra beneficial bacteria. i ran a 14g for about a year with a topfin20 filter, which has no wheel and i never had problems once my cycle was complete.

jdhef

A biowheel should be unnecessary. The befifical bacteria will grow in your filter media. I think the theory behind the biowheel is that you can change you filter media, and still have benificial bacteria living on the wheel. In practice I don't know how well that works.

I don't change mt filter media until it is totally on it's last leg. I just swish it around in the bucket of dirty tank water, and reinstall it in my filter.

For your cannister filter, you are supposed to change out the ceramic rings periodically. When doing so, only change half, wait a few weeks then change the other half.

wizardfitz

great , thanks for the replies. i did hear about not rinsing the filter(in the 10 gal) in fresh water and i also read about only changing out 1/2 the biomax