Biowheel filters - Good, Bad or what?

[K9coral]

Does anyone use these on SW tanks? Whats your experience?

 

[bradl.]

Bad choice,bio wheels may be ok for fresh water use but not salt.Any filtering device that traps water particles such as filter pads or floss must be cleaned almost daily to prevent nitrates from raising.The current trend as far as marine tanks are concerned is live rock,good circulation and a good skimmer.

 

[K9coral]

Other than the pads I wonder if the "biowheel" part would help or hurt the tank.

 

[Yames14]

The biowheel is an efficient biological filter, which obviously is a necessity for the tank. I use one on a 20 gallon tank. I do 4 gallon water changes (almost) every week which includes rinsing the pads. IME, daily rinsing is not necessary to prevent nitrate build up as mine test at less than 2.5 and I don't use a skimmer. It is stocked with two fire fish fed 2X daily, 3 snails and some LPS corals that I feed 3-4X a week, so there are plently of nutritients going in.

There are any number of methods for successfully providing the various types of biological or other filtration necessary. Someone on another board has an extremly beautiful reef set-up he began in 1972 that is still using an undergarvel filter!

Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[K9coral]

Thanks, Ive been using a fluval canister on one of my reefs and I only clean it every 5 or 6 weeks but I have no detectable nitrates. I do water changes on occassion

 

[fishfanatic2]

I wouldn't use a Bio-wheel. Good for FW, I have one on my FW tank, but they cause enough nitrate buildup in saltwater to effect corals. This is because they allow for the development of ammonia and nitrite-ridding bacteria, but not the ones that take the nitrate and reduce it. These nitrate-ridding bacteria are anaerobic and need an environment opposite of what is provided by a wet-dry or biowheel. That is why live rock is such a good bio filter since the bacteria can colonize deep inside the rock.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't use a Bio Wheel on salt water tanks. They are nice for freshwater but just aren't needed on salt, and with those moving parts you can get a lot of salt creep.

If I had a hang on filter like that, I would just use it to run carbon, but I much prefer a skimmer and live rock for the main filtration.