Re: Biowheels in planted tanks

[Brown_D at pcfnotes1_wustl.edu]

Mon, 8 Jul 2002 11:54:30 EDT Dgrim62 at cs_com wrote:
"Subject: Re: Wet/Dry Filter

If you think about it, you don't want to use a biowheel in a planted tank,
as
the thing is a great biological filter and the bacteria would outcompete
the
plants for all the beneficial ammonia. Great for fresh or salt fish only
tanks. I cannot speak for all planted tank keepers, but most use very
little
biomedia in their tanks for the above reason.

So if you shouldn't use the biowheel, then you are going to be paying a lot

of money for basically an injection molded plastic tub, which could be
bought
in the form of a Rubbermaid storage container for around $10 at your local
Wal-Mart. A 10-20 gallon aquarium would also work well. They are also much
cheaper than the Tidepool.

You can achieve particulate filtration for incoming water into the sump by
tying a micron bag around the end of the hose that empties water into the
sump and rinsing it periodically.

The only reason I can see to buy one of these is if you think you may use
the
wet dry with the biowheel in a fish only application in the future."

Does this mean that the biowheel in my Eclipse hood setups is competing
with my plants for the ammonia from the fish?  I thought it just converted
some of it to nitrates, which the plants can also use....although it sounds
like roots and shoots have different opinions of the bioavailability of
these two sources of nitrogen.

Diane Brown