Questions about my new Penguin Biowheel Filter

Kim

I have a 29 gallon tank that I am slowly setting up. Well, I just got the filter for Christmas and I have some questions that I hope some of you can answer. It is a Penguin 200 Biowheel.

1) It's kind of loud even when the water is at the correct level. Will it quiet down eventually? It's right near my bed so....it's kind of annoying .

2) It makes a TON of flow! I wanted to have good filtration on my tank so I bought the filter rated up to 50 gallons instead of 30. Most everyone recommends double the filtration, so I thought I'd be fine. Well, the surface of the water looks like a whilrpool which I don't think I am really loving. I want to put pearl gouramis in there and I think it's pretty safe to assume that no gouramis is going to want that much current. There does not seem to be a way to turn the flow down . Anyone have any suggestions? Will putting the other filter pad in work (it only came with one but there is room for 2)?

Thanks.

Cody

The noise, unfortunatley, is usually an impeller thing for these type of filters. Mine was dead silent as long as the water was up. Try seeing if something is wrong with the impeller or intake tube.

As for the flow, it is defiantley a lot for a 29G. I had the 150 on my 30, and the flow was still pretty strong. And the 200, IMO, is overkill, especially if you are doing some sort of peaceful community. I don't know how to make it weaker though.

rugie

remove it, clean & dry it then return it to the store for a smaller one the 200 is an overkill for a 29 gal, you will never be happy with it.

Kim

Alright then. Thanks. It's kind of a pain because I ordered it online, but I'll have to do something. Urggg...things just seem to go wrong for me!

Tyyrlym

Well first off where is the water level, what height is it exactly? The higher the level the less distance the water falls and the quieter it is.

Second, noise, can you describe it? Does it sound like gravel, a loud buzz, gargling? Where is the intake positioned at in the tank?

Can you get a picture of the surface agitation? A Penguin 200 is rated for 200 gph, I believe. Now that's 200 gph without any filter media or the like.That's 6.8 turn overs an hour which is high but not ridiculous. Putting in a second cartridge will slow the water coming out of the spillway somewhat but the filter is always going to pull a lot of water. It might be too powerful for a gourami or it might not. I've got a betta who lives in an Eclipse 6 just fine.

SinCrisis

my penguin ahd a lot of impeller noise when i got it. Make sure your impeller is in all the way. Mine amde noise cuz one little part of it was touching the plastic at the sides. If you fiddle with it might make teh sound go away. As for your current the higher level of filtration is good for keeping the water cleaner. You could stack up rocks or get somethign to diver your flow. I used to ahve a 6 gallon with a 100 on it and that flow was still ok for a betta.

Little-Fizz

Whatttt?????? That's NOT overkill. No where near. Pretty sure thats how my 28 gallons set up... I don't know that the flow is adjustible... I've tried to figure out what the blue plastic peice attached to the intake tube does? I thought it had something to do with the flow but I don't really know. Actually stick your hand in the water or something to see just how strong the flow is. If it's going to push your fish around then I guess get a smaller filter... But honestly that filter is perfect.


Oh and for the noise... You can't completely stop it but I find putting something on it like the food container, muffles the sound a bit.

Kim

Well, I did return it. I think it was just made wrong and the impeller just didn't fit in right because no matter how much I fiddled with it the noise wouldn't stop. Also, the surface agitation kind of reminded me of the ocean....so I figured it would be easier to just get a filter that I will be happy with instead of one that I'd have to always be fixing to get the flow right.

Actually it was kind of good because I found one that has a surface skimmer built in. That's great for me because my water always seems to have a surface film even though my aquariums are very clean. It has a 160 gph flow rate and is perfect, so I'm happy.

Thanks anyway for the advice.

Pasfur

What did you eventually decide on?

This could be important, because the biological filtration capacity of the Penguin is much more advanced than most other models on the market.