to bio-wheel or not to bio-wheel

[bradttu]

As some of you know, I started my 55 gal. tank last week. I have a powerfilter right now, but I am thinking of upgrading to a bio-wheel setup. I have heard that when I go to change the filter in my current set up, my bacteria will be lost. This makes sense...With the bio-wheel set up, I will not lose the bacteria because I will not be changing the wheels, just the filters. Should I upgrade to a bio-wheel setup? Is there a "retrofit" kit that I could purchase to convert my current setup to a bio-wheel set up? I have been looking all weekend for a retrofit kit, but no luck.
Let the information flow!

 

[nightraven]

In a bio wheel set up the bacteria colonies not only set up on the bio-wheel but they set up in the filter pad as well. Therefore if you change the filter pad you will lose some of your bacteria colonies (but not all of them)
One method is instead of changing the filter pad just rinse it out in the tank water you pull out of the tank when you do your water change. This will keep most of the bacteria alive. Do not rinse the pads in tap water as this will kill the colonies.
Another method used with the larger powerfilters that contain 2 pads (i.e. Penguin 330...) is to change one pad then wait a month before changing the other pad and continue with the offset like that. In this manner you would theoretically be keeping a fairly constant bacteria load on your filter.
Also before you decide to continue with the powerfilter/bio-wheel route, I have read many posts that proclain items such as bio-wheels and bio-balls (like in a wet/dry filter) are nitrate factories and should be eliminated from saltwater systems.
HTH

 

[jlem]

I will address the partial truth of nitrate factories. Every single filter will produce nitrates. Most filters don't convert nitrates to harmless gas. What kind of power filter do you have now? Bacteria will grow on any and everything, including rocks, fake plants, and even glass if never cleaned. So I wouldn't really worry about killing off the bacteria on the pad because chances are if you have more than just a glass tank with water then you have bacteria within the tank. Like nightraven said rinsing the pad in old saltwater will save the bacteria but it will also leave some gunk within the pad which in a lesser way defeats the purpose of cleaning the filter. Biowheels are nice and will produce no more nitrate than a DSB or live rock. The Bio wheels, bio balls, filter floss and so on and so on will not reduce nitrates like live rock, a deep sand bed , or a very large sponge will and the sponge will probably not be very efficient. Nitrates are of little concern unless they are extremely high or if you decide to go with a reef setup and then you will have live rock or a live rock/ live sand combo anyways to help with the whole ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/gas conversion. So even if you kill off the bacteria in the filter the bacteria in the tank should reproduce fast enough to handle any mini spike that may occur and it will only occur once.

 

[thomas712]

jlem - Five Big Grin raiting for that post. Well put.
Thomas

 

[timo]

The bio-wheel I got from my friend came with much praise... now let's see if I can say the same!

 

[waterwolf]

I have used the bio-wheel in the past and feel its one of the best "cheap" filters on the market. Of course the sandbed, liverock are your real filters.

 

[jlem]

Thanks Thomas. I used an emporer 400 on my 90 gallon for a good year before I went reef and found it to be an excellent filter that was simple to setup, clean and the biowheels I feel worked excellent as a biological filter.