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Will it do any harm to have a biowheel in my live-planted setup that already has gravel or would I be able to do without it? Just wondering..

Hi,
I'm not sure how to answer your question as I'm not sure
of the connection between a planted tank, gravel, and
biowheel equipped filters.

If you have a "regular" aquarium that has fish and some
plants in a gravel substrate with no injected CO2, then
the use of a biowheel equipped filter is perfectly ok.

On the other hand, if you are injecting DIY CO2 into
the tank, then you want (as a rule) to minimize any
surface disturbances and you would not use the biowheel
filter.

If you are injecting CO2 from a bottled system,then
you have "unlimited" access to CO2. In other words you
can open the valve a little more than normal to make up
for the losses of CO2 from the water due to the surface agitation of the biowheel filter and the use of a biowheel
equipped filter would be alright.

Because the biowheels are in the top of the filter in
the return, not in the tank itself, the paddles are not
exposed to the CO2 but rather the atmosphere where they are
alternately dipped in water and than exposed to oxygen.

The wheels must be free turning, and to accomplish that
you must regularly clean the axles and the seats that the
wheels turn in. Any sand or gravel that gets into those
seats will rough up the surfaces and stop the wheels motion.

I kinda used the "shotgun" approach to the answer. If I
missed the point of your question, please let me know and
I'll try again.

Hope this helps...
Frank


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