Bio Wheels

[tsunami boy]

I have a pengin 330 gph filter on my 30 g freshwater and I was thinking of going saltwater and I hear that if the biowheels get stuck you have a "catastrophe". Now my freshwater tank has been running for 3 years and through that time my biowheels have gotten stuck many times. What would happen if this happened on a saltwater tank? And are there ways to keep the wheels turning? And would a 30-55 g saltwater Fish with some LR tank and a DSB work with the the penguin and a skimmer but without the biowheels?

 

[pstanley]

When the wheels get stuck the only problem that could happen would be for the bacteria to die (the bacteria not exposed to water). It would have more of an effect in saltwater only because ammonia/nitrites are more dangerous to livestock at highter ph levels...which unfortunately saltwater has. You could run the tank without the bio wheels with just the LR and DSB with no problems.