Does Anyone With a BioWheel Have This Problem?

Andyandsue

I have an Eclipse System with a BioWheel. The BioWheel has built up a nice healthy layer of gunk on it. Each time I clean the tank I also clean the filter and the intake (yes I know to NEVER clean the BioWheel). When I put the whole thing back together, replace the BioWheel and start up the filter again, I get more crap floating in my water from the BioWheel that my filter media needs to be changed again soon.

I have taken to putting a fine net under the output for a few hours each time to catch all that crap, but it still makes a mess and my tank is in a spot that my shoulder keeps hitting the net handle when I walk buy.

Does anyone have this problem, or any ideas how to stop this?

herefishy

I do rinse my biowheels on my Emperor 400's. I know the directions say not to, but....... The tanks seem none the worse for wear. I, too, dislike the "floaties" in my tank.

ttmmm2001

i think you would be ok to tap the biowhel in the sink and remove most of the gunk that way. just dont wash it too good, leave some on there so the bacteria can start growing again.
Thats what i do with my filter pads and it works great to extend their life.

mHeinitz57

if the gunk comes off easy enough you can place the biowheel in a bucket of your tank water and swish it back and forth gently to remove debris. If you need to replace the biowheel you can lower the water level a little, let the old wheel float in the tank and put a new biowheel in the filter. It is imperative to keep the prefilter (blue spong part) clean so that the biowheel stays clean. Even though the filter catches debris, that debris slowly works its way through the filter and will collect on the wheel. THe prefilters should be replaced once a month but probably rinsed out once a week.

Andyandsue

I actually rinse the filter media each week and replace every other. I'm not sure why my wheel is getting so gunked up but it sounds like others have a similar problem. I like the idea of swishing it around in some tank water, this way it's not being rinsed.

Maybe it's just me, but I've found that contrary to what the instructions say, when the BioWheel is clean and can move freely (not cleaned off, just free from being weighted down by a huge amount of build up) the whole filtration process works more efficiently at keeping the tank cleaner.

I'm going to try this right now!