"Watkins Lady" wrote in
message
...
Ingrid, I have heard you mention a few times about the bio
wheels. I have
one on my tank and wondered why. I noticed the last few
times I did water
changes and rinsed the media that there was "fluff" and
cloudy water coming
out when I turned the filter back on. Could this be
caused from the wheels
(there are 2 compartments / 2 wheels on this filter).
Should I take the
wheels off?

Watkins Lady

Chiming in, since I have biowheel power filters
on all my tanks:
-the biowheels contain the good "bugs" and
should not be cleaned or replaced unless
damaged to the point where they won't turn.
As they get "coated" with good bugs, they'll
turn much slower than at first. That's good!
Check out Marineland's site:
http://www.marineland.com/science/biowheel.asp

-the filter material should be cleaned in
extracted tank water as you clean filter
material in any other power filter.

-about every other partial water change I
clean the filter itself well. (I.e., about once
a month.) I drop the biowheel in extracted tank
water (or in the aquarium itself), rinse the filter
material in extracted tank water, then rinse and
scrub lightly (with bottle washer) inside the filter
using regular old tap water. I figure there are
plenty of bio bugs on the wheel and the filter
material and not enough icky (chloramines)
tap water gets into the tank to cause a problem
I also clean the impeller with a small bottle
brush, since it can gunk up. Pretty much anywhere
I can reach with a bottle brush I clean.

HTH - Gail