BIO-Wheel Filters for Aquariums
The top picture shows the Eclipse Aquarium Hood on my Aquarium with the cover of the hood open. The red arrow points to the BIO-Wheel filter in the hood.
BIO-Wheel from an Eclipse Aquarium Hood.
Here is a closer view of the BIO-Wheel filter with the folded pleats that increase the surface area to provide more living space for the bacteria. This BIO-Wheel is new and has not yet been populated by bacteria.
1. We Recommend BIO-Wheels ...
in aquarium filters such as the Penguin Filters, the Emperor Filters, and the Eclipse Aquarium Hoods. An Eclipse Aquarium Hood is shown above with its built-in BIO-Wheel.
All of these filters are made by Marineland Inc. This page contains an explanation of why we recommend filters with BIO-Wheels over all other filters for all freshwater aquariums.
At the bottom of this page is link to the page in Marineland's web site, which contains more information about their Penguin BIO-Wheel Filters. Click here now to buy a BIO-Wheel Filter.
2. Water Filtration is Very Important ...
to the health of the fish, living in aquariums. Click here to go to another page in this web site with information about the three stages of Water Filtration.
The advertisement, shown below, links to this advertiser's web site.
Aquarium Guys offers a large variety of Aquarium Supplies including both Tropical Fish Supplies and Saltwater Aquarium Supplies for your fish tank. Click on this image to go to the page in Aquarium Guys' web site with more information about the products in this ad.
3. Biological Filtration ...
of aquarium water is performed by living bacteria. These bacteria are often called beneficial bacteria to distinguish them from the pathogenic bacteria that cause diseases. Click here for more information about biological filtration.
4. Biological Filters ...
are generally devices that provide living space for the beneficial bacteria that perform the biological filtration that was mentioned in paragraph 3 above.
Most biological filters are limited by the amount of oxygen that is dissolved in the water, and oxygen is not very soluble in water. In fact, aquarium water rarely has more than 7 ppm (parts per million) of oxygen.
So biological filters, that rely completely on the water flowing through them to provide oxygen for their bacteria, are limited by the small amount of oxygen that's dissolved in the water. Under gravel filters, canister filters, sponge filters, and especially fluidized bed filters are almost always starved for oxygen. They have lots of fish waste and lots of surface area with lots of bacteria, but the water in these filters lacks an abundant supply of oxygen for the bacteria.
So all of these types of filters are greatly limited by the small amount of oxygen in the water that flows through them.
5. BIO-Wheels ...
spinning in the air and water, are not limited by the amount of oxygen in the water. Air is 20% oxygen, that is 200,000 ppm compared with the 7 ppm in water, and the abundant oxygen in the air rapidly replenishes the oxygen at the surface of the water, such as on the surfaces of a BIO-Wheel. So the water on the surfaces of the BIO-Wheel is always very rich in oxygen.
The beneficial bacteria living on the BIO-Wheel are able to use the abundant oxygen in the water that's on the BIO-Wheel to rapidly oxidize the fish waste that's also dissolved in the water.
6. BIO-Wheels are Self-Cleaning.
A BIO-Wheel in one of our Eclipse Aquarium Hoods has been running for many months without any maintenance.
Of course every few weeks we replace the filter pad, which is separated from the BIO-Wheel, and changing this filter pad takes only a minute or two. Because the Filtering Media moves as the BIO-Wheels spin, the BIO-Wheels are able to adjust to a rapid increase in the amount of fish waste, as might happen in a fish store, when the aquariums are restocked from the fish wholesaler.
But filters, such as canister filters, with filtering media that does not move will not respond quickly to an increased bio-load, and the amount of waste in the water will increase for about two days, until the bacteria can respond to the increased bio-load.
BIO-Wheels use very little energy. A filter with a BIO-Wheel needs to pump the water only a few inches above the water level in the aquarium, and there is practically no backpressure, so filters with BIO-Wheels require very little energy.
