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Greetings all! I just wanted to know the optimum way of cleaning the "sludge" off of the bio-wheels. Upon doing my regular monthly filter cleaning, I noticed that a couple of the wheels have built up with a thick brown slime which is preventing them from rotating... any advice would be appreciated, as I don't want half of the bio-wheels not turning... Thanks!

Can I just use my fingers and maybe kind of "rub" it off gently in tank water?

I had a Bio-Wheel with the first tank that I bought. It gave me nothing but trouble with the same issue you brought up above hence making it hard to keep the good bacteria alive because the bio-wheel would quit spinning and dry out if I didn't keep a constant eye on it. I posted here and there were a lot of friendly people on this site who gave me possible suggestions and also the (800) number to the company. I ended up replacing it with a different type of filter and have had no problems since...

When bio-wheels build up bacteria, they will slow down, or pause for a second.

As long as it doesnt stop moving and drying out, it is fine.

If there is alot of sludge on the piece, i would suggest wiping it off with your fingers (just the little white pieces)

Do you have an Emperor/Penguin filter, or an eclipse hood? You can adjust the spray bars on the Emperor/Penguin filters, but there is none on the eclipse system, it turns by water hitting it after the filterpad.

How often do you clean/change your filter pads? Maby if you clean them off 2 times a month, no sludge will build up on the bio-wheel.

Even if the rotation slows or even pauses, as long as it continues to turn it is working. Oh, and im not 100% sure, but i dont think penguins have spray-bars.

I love Penguins and they don't have spray bars, only Emporers.

I think you could just swish the wheel around in a bucket of tank water when you do a water change. Anything loose would come off and it wouldn't be enough to lose much bacteria.

Mike

I have an Penguin 330. In the maintenance manual it says to:

If calcium deposits build up around Bearings and Brackets interferes with rotation, carefully remove Bio-Wheel from Bracket and gently brush Bearing and Axle area clean. To avoid disturbing beneficial bacteria culture, handle a Bio-Wheel by the End Caps and/or Axle. Any algae, mineral or other buildup that hinder rotation can be eliminated with a gentle rinse in room temperature water. (use treated dechorinated room temperature tap water only!) As long as Bio-Wheel is not damaged, it does not need to be replaced.

Discoloration of pleated Bio-Wheel material is normal and desirable. Never clean the Bio-Wheel unless it is heavily cultured stopping rotation.

Hope that helps.

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-08-26 01:39][/span]

It doesn't necissarily sound like the "sludge" as described before is caused from a calcium deposit. And Vic is right, as long as it doesn't completed stop moving it is fine. But if it does stop then that's really not good. I had asked the guy at the (800) number if it could possibly be a glitch in the specific bio-wheel that I had but he couldn't promise me that if I bought the new one that it wouldn't do the same thing.

One good way to get the sludge off is to put some water in a bucket with some dechlorinator as you would when doing a water change and put the wheel in the water and swish it around until the sludge loosens and falls off.

Out of curiosity, how long has the bio-wheel been running and do you have any plants in your tank?

Thanks everyone! It looks like I'll have to swish them around in some water... It appears that they didn't even rotate overnight , so I'll get right on it this morning. I've had the tank set up for about a year and a half and the filters are two 330's (with no spray bar). Also, there are no plants in the tank (anymore). It is a Malawi tank, so the plants went kind of fast

[span class="edited"][Edited by -VilmeR- 2004-08-26 11:57][/span]

You can lightly scrub off the sludge with a soft toothbrush under tank water...

Bio wheels populate quick enough to recover. Not all bacteria will be removed in the process anyway.

--garyroland.