slamddakota99

i got a dual penguin bio wheel/emperor. i really would like to use it in my tank! i have a couple buddies tha told me tha it produces too much ammonia and will kill all my coral......i go to LFS and they run them in all their tanks! i had it in my pirahna tank 4years ago and i had no problems with ammonia but yet again tha was fresh water this is salt.....any info would help!!!

Hypnox

Biowheels don't produce ammonia, they produce nitrates. As long as you remove the wheels it should be fine. The wheels catch a lot of detritus and it just degrades there, causing a lot of nitrates in your water. Too many nitrates can also be bad for corals, some corals being more sensitive to nitrates than others.

slamddakota99

kool cuz i can't find the wheels for it!!!! i can't find the lid nor the plastic media cartages LOL! but it does still work great!!!!!

slamddakota99

does anyone know where i can get parts for the marineland emperor400? i just need a lid and plastic filter cartage........nothing on ebay :|

snksknr

I have been using this filter for the last 5 years in my 55g saltwater tank and my amonia ,nitrite and nitrate levels are all at 0-PPM. I have 1 condy anenome and a few xenia's along with a couple of coral bannded shrimps, a maroon clown and a blue devil damsel. The clown, anenome and damsel are two weeks younger than the tank. My lfs has a 90g reef display tank with 2 emperor 400's and they have not done a water change in over ten years, everything in that tank looks beautiful.So I say use the biowheels. As long as you keep up with the mechanical filtration you wont get any biuldup on the biowheels. once the wheels get colonized with bacteria youll never have to touch them again. I only use the plastic media cartridges that came with the filter, I place my own filter wool, carbon and phosphate remover in the cartridges and call it a day. As for the replacement parts most lfs that carry penguin products should have them in stock or can order them for you.

JohnnyOcean

Is that a typo? No water change in 10 years.

Drew 43920

I am surprised to hear that Bio-wheels produce nitrates !
I thought Bio-wheels where the home of "good" bacterium which helped neutralize nitrates.

snksknr

"no water change in 10 years", thats what they keep telling me. They use marine plants or macro algae of some sort that thrive on phosphates and nitrates. It's been about three months since ive been there, i'll try to go by soon and get some more info and post it up.

JohnnyOcean

They probably created a complete balanced system. My lfs has a biocube like that complete with micro algae. As for the water change issue I don't know. Next time I go I'll ask the owner. As for the bio wheels their purpose/design is to promote good bacteria. When there is excess buildup, the wheels will slow or stop. To remedy this is to clean them in your discard tank water when you do your tank maintenance/water change.

Hypnox

Nope, they're the home of good bacteria that produce nitrates. My 20L gallon reef constantly ran ~15 ppm nitrates till I removed my biowheel. After removing the biowheel it dropped to ~0.

sgould

Any mechanical filter like this is going to result in nitrates in the tank for 2 reasons. 1) The biological filtration component is specifically designed to convert ammonia to nitrites, then nitrites to nitrates. In addition, as was stated above, mechanical filtration will result in debris getting caught in the filter (after all, that's the point) and just sitting there and decaying. Not a problem for most freshwater tanks, or even fish only salt tanks. However, corals and inverts are more sensitive to elevated nitrate levels.

au01st

I honestly don't believe the "no water change in 10 years" unless they have lab grade test kits and dose many trace elements. Salt creep, evap, etc, technically they're adding new water. Most tanks replace trace elements with water changes as they're included in the salt mix.

slamddakota99

hmmmm so keep the filter w/out the bio wheels? or get them? i do have a candy cane coral and a ricordia.....so far

TedsTank

They are made by Marineland. Go on line and search Marineland.....they have all the parts would should ever need....Which isn't often.

slamddakota99

no i was asking.....should i use the bio wheels or should i not use them LOL...cuz right now i do not have them on

TedsTank

oops sorry,
I'm sold on them....biological filteration is also one of natures way in ponds and creeks...we try to mimic that. For fresh water systems. I have seen on this forum that they maybe shouldn't be used in saltwater systems

slamddakota99

well i got a s/w tank....but no bio wheels but still using it as well as my jebo canister

WETTRIGGER

ALL FILTERS PRODUCE NITRATES....meaning..the end result of the nitrafication process is nitrates...and thats what water changes are for.
Bio wheel filters are awesome...find the wheels and use them. As far as the other thing...no water changes in 10 years.....No way