Ive been into fish since i had my first goldfish bowl at around 5. Growing up I ate and breathed tropical fish.Freshwater,everything from oscars to guppys. Strictly fresh water though. Well about 6 months ago my girl friend and I set up a 29 gallon salt water tank at her house,so she could get some "finding Nemos" for her 5 year old sons birthday. While researching and shopping for this set up,I became hooked. Well I found this web site about 3 months ago and its better than all the issues of Tropical Fish Hobbyist combined.(I was into it when I was younger) Heres my 3 month old tank specs. I bought a 55 with 3 inches of live sand,60 pounds of figi live rock,for filtration I have an Emperor 400 with bio wheels on one side and an Emperor 280 on the other which allows room for the Seaclone 100. Lighting is a double 48'' 40 watt with one 10000k and one actinic bulb plus 2 18 watt 50/50s. Nowas for my fish,you can crusify me if ya want but here goes.One 4 inch Emperor and a Puple Tang.A couple Xenias,which are doing well and a green button pollip start. Ive heard you guys slam the bio wheels and I wanna know the facts. I see these used in pet shops on there tanks all the time.ON SALT TANKS. Would my fish be healthier with the wheels in or out. Oh and my skimmer sucks to by the way. Thx. Brad from Illinois
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Bio Wheels and the Seaclone 100,,,,,
- Thread starter bradl.
- Start date
I'll give you the long form on the Bio-Wheel.
The ABC's of the nitrogen cycle in an aquarium are that fish/inverts/decaying matter excrete ammonia, ammonia gets converted to nitrite by one type of bacteria, and that nitrite gets converted by another type of bacteria into nitrate. Both these type of bacteria prefer moist, warm, dark conditions to drive. Biowheels, wet drys and trickle filters are then logically optimum places for ammo/nitrite reducing bacteria to grow, and I believe the technology originally came from the sewage treatment industry.
While this may sound like a good thing, these contraptions are actually a solution in search of a problem in even the most neglected marine/fresh water marine tanks. You see, basically any porous material in an aquarium will host these colonies of bacteria, because the stuff literally grows everywhere, indcucing the dirt ouside your house. It may take them longer to grow the colonies, but they'll still thrive. If anything, you have to be really ignorant to have a problem with ammo/nitrite in an established marine or fresh water tank, or be dealing with extreme disruptions such as moving the entire sand/rock bed, or a massive die off of organic material. Adding large amount of uncured live rock to an established aquarium is another example of inducing a ammonia spike. In my opinion, checking for ammonia in a maintained fish tank is a lot like checking for oxygen in the air each morning after you get up.
Here's the bigger problem besides biowheels and wet/drys being simply redundant. In an established marine or fresh water tank nitrate buildups are far more a problem when the tank matures because we've already concluded ammo/nitrite is a non issue. Nitrate reducing bacteria don't care for oxygen, and generally will only grow in deep sand beds or deep inside live rock where oxygen levels are low. Due to the design of biowheels and wet/drys to provide maximum oxygen per surface area, they sure aren't going to grow there.
Live rock and sand beds also host ammo/nitrite reducing bacteria near the surface where oxygen levels are higher, and quite simply it's more efficient for nitrate reducing bacteria to sit at the end of the buffet table and and grab all that nitrate that's been produced by the bacteria living just a few inches away. With a Biowheel or wet/dry, the nitrate gets dumped into the tanks ecosystem where it gets the priveldge of feeding nuisance algae and not efficiently finding the buried colonies of nitrate eaters. So, that's why we don't like these contraptions. A biowheel is great for keeping 100 feeder goldfish alive at the pet store in a 20gal tank. They are not so welcome in a well maintained fresh or marine tank because nitrate reduction is a far more pesky problem to deal with than ammo/nitrite reduction. Note I should add undergravel filters to that list because when driven by a strong power head, they prevent nitrate reducing bacteria from thriving in the gravel because there's too much O2. The short form is get some live rock to do the work and not a biowheel because the live rock will help with SOME nitrate reduction while the mechanical contraptions accomplish none.
While the seaclone is not a bad skimmer, it's not a good one either. My own technical opinion is that *all* venturi driven skimmers that use a generic external powerhead as a bubble maker *suck*. These powerheads are simply not designed to produce a dense stream of fine bubbles but instead produce an erratic stream of coarse bubbles that don't allow for efficient operation. The much higher rated EuroReefs for example use powerheads with exotic impellars designed to make fine bubbles over being good at simply pushing water, and Remoras use an injector that's an entirely different technology. If the seaclone can be made to push a dense mix of fine bubbles, it woulndn't be a bad skimmer at all. If you have a seaclone, insure the bubble chamber is being isn't being slammed by heavy amount of large bubbles and it will work better. Angling the powerhead up can often help this.
The ABC's of the nitrogen cycle in an aquarium are that fish/inverts/decaying matter excrete ammonia, ammonia gets converted to nitrite by one type of bacteria, and that nitrite gets converted by another type of bacteria into nitrate. Both these type of bacteria prefer moist, warm, dark conditions to drive. Biowheels, wet drys and trickle filters are then logically optimum places for ammo/nitrite reducing bacteria to grow, and I believe the technology originally came from the sewage treatment industry.
While this may sound like a good thing, these contraptions are actually a solution in search of a problem in even the most neglected marine/fresh water marine tanks. You see, basically any porous material in an aquarium will host these colonies of bacteria, because the stuff literally grows everywhere, indcucing the dirt ouside your house. It may take them longer to grow the colonies, but they'll still thrive. If anything, you have to be really ignorant to have a problem with ammo/nitrite in an established marine or fresh water tank, or be dealing with extreme disruptions such as moving the entire sand/rock bed, or a massive die off of organic material. Adding large amount of uncured live rock to an established aquarium is another example of inducing a ammonia spike. In my opinion, checking for ammonia in a maintained fish tank is a lot like checking for oxygen in the air each morning after you get up.
Here's the bigger problem besides biowheels and wet/drys being simply redundant. In an established marine or fresh water tank nitrate buildups are far more a problem when the tank matures because we've already concluded ammo/nitrite is a non issue. Nitrate reducing bacteria don't care for oxygen, and generally will only grow in deep sand beds or deep inside live rock where oxygen levels are low. Due to the design of biowheels and wet/drys to provide maximum oxygen per surface area, they sure aren't going to grow there.
Live rock and sand beds also host ammo/nitrite reducing bacteria near the surface where oxygen levels are higher, and quite simply it's more efficient for nitrate reducing bacteria to sit at the end of the buffet table and and grab all that nitrate that's been produced by the bacteria living just a few inches away. With a Biowheel or wet/dry, the nitrate gets dumped into the tanks ecosystem where it gets the priveldge of feeding nuisance algae and not efficiently finding the buried colonies of nitrate eaters. So, that's why we don't like these contraptions. A biowheel is great for keeping 100 feeder goldfish alive at the pet store in a 20gal tank. They are not so welcome in a well maintained fresh or marine tank because nitrate reduction is a far more pesky problem to deal with than ammo/nitrite reduction. Note I should add undergravel filters to that list because when driven by a strong power head, they prevent nitrate reducing bacteria from thriving in the gravel because there's too much O2. The short form is get some live rock to do the work and not a biowheel because the live rock will help with SOME nitrate reduction while the mechanical contraptions accomplish none.
While the seaclone is not a bad skimmer, it's not a good one either. My own technical opinion is that *all* venturi driven skimmers that use a generic external powerhead as a bubble maker *suck*. These powerheads are simply not designed to produce a dense stream of fine bubbles but instead produce an erratic stream of coarse bubbles that don't allow for efficient operation. The much higher rated EuroReefs for example use powerheads with exotic impellars designed to make fine bubbles over being good at simply pushing water, and Remoras use an injector that's an entirely different technology. If the seaclone can be made to push a dense mix of fine bubbles, it woulndn't be a bad skimmer at all. If you have a seaclone, insure the bubble chamber is being isn't being slammed by heavy amount of large bubbles and it will work better. Angling the powerhead up can often help this.
The Bio-wheel will not hurt your system, there are just better ways to get the job done like stated above but more simply put, bio wheels can produce nitrates, but not reduce them. Rock and sand can both produce and reduce at the same time. it is better to produce nitrate where the nitrate reducers live, then to have it produced in an external filter then blown through the tank.
I have used the bio-wheels on both salt and fresh. They seem to work great for fresh but I had a serious salt creep problem using the same filter you are using on a 50 gallon tank. I replaced it with a Aquaclear Power Filter. I myself like the Seaclone 150. It works just fine for me. Sometimes I think people that hate them either have not used one or don't know how to use one. Mine sucks up lots of gunk out of my 100 gallon. The water level must be correct and the cup must be cleaned weekly.....more or less just like any other skimmer,the airhose needs to be checked weekly also for any clogging. Mine has bewcome clogged several times within the last year and a half with salt residue. Its true that with this type of skimmer the bubbles are larger than other skimmers that cost much much more but I believe it as good hangon skimmer you can get for the money. Its also quiet.
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