penguin 170 biowheel

[snoce]

i have a penguin 170 from marineland...i am happy with it..i have a 29gl tank...but lately the wheel doesnt totally spin constantly...it spins then stop the spin then stop and so on...there seems to be nothing stopping it and i do clean things so what can it be anyone have any ideas

 

[Flex26]

my P170 does that from time to time....that is part of the reason why i'm replacing it with an AC200. anyway, is there anything blocking the intake tube? That is my problem sometimes. Also, it could just be the gunk accumulating on the spindle. Try cleaning the spindle on the bio-wheel.

Good luck.

 

[snoce]

thanks

i do clean it...and the intake is clear

 

[Managuense]

have you tried "swishing" the bio-wheel in some dechlorinated water?

i used to have to do that sometimes with my penguin 330's in the past.

 

[snoce]

what i do is swish it around in its own tank water....i take some out and put it in a bucket then swish it there...i do this also when i clean my filt cart.

 

[catfishmike]

pull the two side frames of the pleated wheel,wipe off the pleats,both sides and then replace.it should work like new.

 

[fishlover25]

the wheel doesnt have to be always spinning lets say for example you wheel spins but if it stops for like 2 seconds there is nothing wrong with that. it still works. my Penguin 330 does the same thing and it still keeps my water good. even Marineland says that its ok. it all the backteria that has collected on it that makes that happen.

 

[Lotus]

What you really need to make sure is that all the pleats are kept wet. Even if it spins slowly, as long as the bacteria are kept wet it is spinning fast enough.

 

[Daemonfly]

This problem is very common with the 170 models, design flaw imho. I ended up getting out the dremel & modding the one I had, before I ended up giving it to a friend with a 29g. It still has a few problems.

Other models don't have as many problems, the tiny wheel on my 6g Eclipse never stopped unless a snail got stuck in there. That got replaced with a AC Mini though.