Bio-wheels

[krandall at world_std.com]

>Any opinions on biowheels, pro or con? Anywhere else I can read about
>biowheel effects? 

I have an opinion.<g>  

I have used biowheel filters on planted tanks, when that was the filtration
that was available. (penguins, on smaller tanks)  Yes, they do dissipate
some CO2.  Is that a bad thing?  I guess it depends on the size of the
tank, and whether your goal is to conserve CO2 or not.  I have not found
them to dissipate CO2 much more than any other OPF... they all do this to
some extent.  It's pretty easy to add enough CO2 to compensate for what is
lost.  

OTOH, bio-wheels are _strictly_ biological filtration, so they compete with
the plants for nitrogen.  If your tank is over stocked or under planted,
they will give you a margin of error.  If you are having trouble keeping
the nitrate levels up in the tank anyway, biological filtration is more of
a nuisance than a help.  (If you have to change water to keep your nitrate
levels reasonably low, you probably benefit from the bio-wheels, if you
have to add nitrogen, remove them)

>If they do dissipate the CO2, perhaps my pH would not get
>so high when CO2 flow rate slows?

Actually, by dissipating CO2, they will bring the pH UP slightly, not down.
 They become more of a problem when CO2 rate drops, unless it drops to the
point that CO2 in the tank is LOWER than at equilibrium with the
atmosphere.  Then, again, the biowheels could help alleviate that
situation.  But if your CO2 level is that low, you probably have other
problems, or a _really_ slow growth tank, in which case the biowheel _and_
the additional CO2 are probably superfluous.

Karen

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