bio filter
Lana, She did get replies as she posted the same topic a week earlier. Here is Lenny’s post. RE: [AquaticLife] bio rolling filter
Which brand/model do you have? There’s usually something minor that causes a bio-wheel to quit spinning completely.
One thing I’ve seen with my Penguin Bio-Wheel 200 model is there is a little half-moon cut-out next to the intake tube and if the filter cartridge gets clogged, water will overflow out of that half-moon, rather than go over the clogged filter. When this happens, not enough water flows past the bio-wheel to keep it spinning properly.
Go to my blog and see my “Filter Profile - Penguin Bio-Wheel 200″ where I show how I roll up a small piece of filter poly pad (like a short cigar) and shove it into that half-moon cut out. This causes the water to go through or over the filter cartridge which at least keeps the bio-wheel spinning. Proper filter cartridge maintenance (either changing them or cleaning them… I just clean mine) will keep the water flowing through the cartridge and thus past the bio-wheel so you shouldn’t experience a problem.
Another thing I’ve seen is where algae or scum will build up in the little holders on each side of the bio-wheel pins and that adds friction and can slow things down. I use tooth picks to clean out those little holders on each side whenever I do filter maintenance.
Last but not least, if it does stop spinning, you need to manually spin it several times to get the entire bio-wheel filter soaked with water again as it will be too heavy on one side when it stops and it doesn’t want to start spinning again since it’s bottom heavy.
Oh yeah.. to answer your question, as long as you don’t change both the cartridge and the bio-wheel at the same time, you would probably only experience a mini-cycle. How long has the tank been set up? The nitrifying bacteria grow in the filter cartridge, in the bio-wheel filter and on all other surface areas of the tank/gravel/decorations, etc. The majority do live in the filter media. I would estimate that 40% live on the bio-wheel, 30-40% in the filter cartridge and 20-30% on all of the other surface areas of the tank. So if you change out either the filter cartridge or bio-wheel, you would be trashing 30-40% of your N-bacteria so you would likely have a mini-cycle (small ammonia/nitrite spike) within the next few days so test daily and be prepared to do a PWC as needed to keep the ammonia/nitrite below 0.5ppm… depending on what your pH and temperature is…. read this page for more info on Ammonia Toxicity. _http://dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/AmmoniaTox.html_ (http://dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/AmmoniaTox.html) A pinch of salt per 10G will protect against nitrite poisoning (brown blood disorder).
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - _http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com_ (http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/) (Links to articles referenced above listed on the right side under Archives - Year, Month and under Labels)
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
