Bio-Wheel
- Thread starter sjay
- Start date
LOL!
i love this debate.
the argument for bio-wheels goes something like this..
1. water has about 7ppm oxygen available ....
2. air has something like 30,000 ppm oxygen available...
the bio-wheel allows oxygen to be obtained from the air for the establishment of nitrifying bacteria.
i TOTALLY agree with this, and think that the bio-wheel filters are great.
i DISAGREE that bio-wheels are the "end-all" and that they can outperform canisters or even aquaclears for that matter.
2 sponges in an aquaclear (even at 7ppm Oxygen) will have TONS of bacteria colonies due to the large amount of surface area for attachment.
the bio-wheels have much, much less surface area for attachment-- even if they draw oxygen from the air.
most people i have talked to notice NO difference in the biological filtering capacity from an aquaclear, an eheim, an emperor, etc. i myself have had extremely stable biological filtration with no bio-wheel filters at all.
the reason i run an emperor 400 and a 280 on my tank??
i think that they DO work well, and i think that the actually craftsmanship of the emperors is a bit better than other power filters. that is it....nothing more.
i would take an eheim over any of them, any day of the week though.
M
i love this debate.
the argument for bio-wheels goes something like this..
1. water has about 7ppm oxygen available ....
2. air has something like 30,000 ppm oxygen available...
the bio-wheel allows oxygen to be obtained from the air for the establishment of nitrifying bacteria.
i TOTALLY agree with this, and think that the bio-wheel filters are great.
i DISAGREE that bio-wheels are the "end-all" and that they can outperform canisters or even aquaclears for that matter.
2 sponges in an aquaclear (even at 7ppm Oxygen) will have TONS of bacteria colonies due to the large amount of surface area for attachment.
the bio-wheels have much, much less surface area for attachment-- even if they draw oxygen from the air.
most people i have talked to notice NO difference in the biological filtering capacity from an aquaclear, an eheim, an emperor, etc. i myself have had extremely stable biological filtration with no bio-wheel filters at all.
the reason i run an emperor 400 and a 280 on my tank??
i think that they DO work well, and i think that the actually craftsmanship of the emperors is a bit better than other power filters. that is it....nothing more.
i would take an eheim over any of them, any day of the week though.
M
the thing with the penguins is that the bags clog so quickly! after a couple of days the water isnt even being run through the bags, it simply rushes out over the bag, over the bio-wheel, and back into the tank.
they are one of the most quiest running, and best priming filters on the market though...
M
they are one of the most quiest running, and best priming filters on the market though...
M
I just remembered some stuff I saw at petsmart. It was like ceramic material for filters. Anybody ever hear of or use this? It says it provides a good place for bacteria to grow. It was sorta like teeny little tubes, but about the size of that carbon they sell in jars. I think it was fairly high dollar too.
personally, i count the splashing as noise. mechanically, my P330 and P170 are quiet. however, the splashing creates much noise. even, if my tank is topped off.
if i had to choose another filter, then I would go with an aquaclear. my dad has a aquaclear, and that is quiet as can be. hmmm....maybe i'll get a couple new ACs.....
if i had to choose another filter, then I would go with an aquaclear. my dad has a aquaclear, and that is quiet as can be. hmmm....maybe i'll get a couple new ACs.....
I love my penguins. However I have removed the biowheels because of the fact that they introduce so much oxygen into the water.. I have a planted tank with no CO2 injector. so i need all the help i can get. The penguins are more reliable than the AC's IMO. I have had all the sizes of penguins and none of them were noisy. I have seen AC's come out of the box rattling like crazy. I do not consider water splashing noise because if you keep your tank full there is no splashing noise. IMO canister filters are the way to go for a low mantinance efficent quality filtration system.
If you remove the wheels, they're aqua-techs and not penguins, lol. I added a wheel to my aquatech 20-40. My penguin 330 is quiet. My aquatech 20-40/penguin 170 splashes because the spillway doesn't go as far down as the 330. Plus the lower water makes more movement below the surface, which my clowns and kenyis seem to appreciate (so do the danios).