Switch to a new HOB wasnt seamless

20 gallon fully cycled, communit tank.

My Marineland Penguin 150 cycled for 2 years gave out with no warning so today I bought a new Marineland Pro 175. 100% transfer of cycled media so that's a positive...except the pesky bio wheel. The new filters have a slightly different size so my old, cycled bio wheel wouldn't fit and spin correctly. I have the old one in a mesh bag floating in the tank right now.

Media in the filter are two cycled sponges with a cycled bag of seachem matrix. I also transferred the pre-filter intake sponge that was running for over a year to the same spot on the new intake tube.

New filter is running great but the tank is a mess, lots of floaties and cloudiness.

My questions:
- Did I do anything wrong here?
- what should I do with the old bio wheel currently floating in the tank?

Note there's also a small sponge.filter (cycled over a year) I keep running on the other side of the tank for extra filtration.

 

It seems like you have done everything in the best way possible.
Leave everything as is. Maybe move the old bio wheel as close as possible to the water fall discharge? Don’t clean the glass for a few days.

 

My Marineland Penguin 150 also quit after aprox 2 years, replaced with the same model . Hope this one lasts more than 2 years.

 

Having btdt, are you sure it gave up the ghost and not just a maintenance issue? I've had snails crawl into the impeller area during a water change that required an eviction notice. Ran flawlessly after that.

It's not like there's a lot of moving mechanical parts in these....the impeller is magnetic driven. Might just need a cleaning and/or replacement.

 

Having btdt, are you sure it gave up the ghost and not just a maintenance issue? I've had snails crawl into the impeller area during a water change that required an eviction notice. Ran flawlessly after that.

It's not like there's a lot of moving mechanical parts in these....the impeller is magnetic driven. Might just need a cleaning and/or replacement.

Yeah it was done. I did some maintenance on it and the impeller. Cleaned it (the right way, not the killing the cycle way). It would run seemingly fine and then cut out unexpectedly which I wouldn't notice until hours later. Then I'd have to take it apart a bit, ug it back in, and starts working again for a day or so...rinse repeat.

One time last year it made this super loud noise in the middle of the night and quit working. 10 minutes trying not to wake the kids up until I saw the problem was the 2 snails completely blocking the intake. Wonder what that felt like to them.