Re: 15gal setup recommendations -- Why oh Biowheels

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Doug Mainor suggsted:

> Just an idea on the bio-wheel.  I put a plastic sheet
> cut to fit over the front of my marineland 330
> duel-bio wheel and it cuts surface agitation down to
> next to nothing and doesn't interfere with the
> operation of the biowheel so you may be able to keep
> the same filter.  It seems my DIY CO2 is booming   My
> amazon sword just gave me 8 babies.

If your filter output is turbulently entering your
aquarium, regardless of the presence of a Biowhell, you'll
be throwing of CO2 more than you might want.  Calming that
entry helps conserve CO2.  If you have lots of healthy
lants, O2 levels sholdn't suffer by calming the entry.  

With a Biowheell significant turbulence (or the equivalent
thereof) is the water water passing over/through the
biowheel.  In fact, they can be darn good aerators.  This
air/water gas exchange effect greater with the spraybar
types than the underwheel-flow types.  I tried covering the
housing to see if that increased the CO2 saturation in the
air in the biwheel chanber enough to reduce the CO2 loss
from the wheel and the effect was postive but negligible.  

I think if you use a biowheel on a CO2 injected tank,
you'll need a lot more CO2 than without the biowheel.  On
the one hand, CO2 is cheap; on the other hand, plants can
obviate the utility of a biowheel.  You can make it work
either way.

Scott H.

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