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My boyfriend is thinking about trading in his Whisper filter because it does not seem to be doing much, and he wanted to know if anyone has any experience with a "Bio-Wheel" filter, and would they reccomend them? Thanks so much in advance!
Brandi

I have 4 bio-wheels 3 330's and 1 mini. They do a great job. Only down fall is the carbon can not be taken out, with out taking out the floss too. I have found a way around this. Oh I forgot, I have one bio-wheel in my eclipse corner 5g. I think they work great and highly recommend them.

I personally like the bio wheels better than any other filtration system. I currently run emperor, penguin, and aquaclear, and I prefer the emperor the best.

i used to have a penguin and now an emperor. i love the bio wheels because i can change and blast out the cartridge with out going thru a mini cycle. removing the carbon isnt a problem if u have an emperor or a penguin 330 since u can just not use the cartridge and just fill up the media basket with floss or cut up some foam from an AC filter which i did.

I have two biowheels ( the pro 60 attachment) on a magnum 350 outflow....an eclipse 5 gal with biowheel...an emperor 280..and I still say biowheels are overrated. The amount of 'good' bacteria is still limited by the bioload, so providing a more oxygenated/larger colonization area isn't necessarily going to give you more 'good' bacteria nor better filtration. The tanks I have biowheels on stay 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites. . . so does the tanks I have aquaclears on.. canister filters on...sponge filters on...box filters on...

In my opinion, biowheels are popular due to the fact that people can "see" them work...churning away, slapping water around. Kind of makes you feel like it's "doing" something.

I like biowheels for providing aeration for the water in non planted tanks, because I hate bubble stones and the like. I like being able to rinse the cartridge without worrying about loss of bacteria ( can do this on every canister filter out there, as well as aquaclear filters and any other filter with segmented media that can be rinsed seperately on a different time line, btw), but all-in-all, unless you are having ammonia or nitrite spikes, constant mini-cycles, etc, chances are you have enough bacteria, and therefore enough media colonization space by default, for your bioload and a biowheel isn't going to increase that unless you increase your bioload along with it.

I imagine that a biowheel would be helpful if you're going to overstock your tank, but I can't speak from experience with that. There is a POTENTIAL for greater bacterial colonization with a biowheel compared to some other filters, which would help with overstocking, but on a normally stocked tank the benefits of this potential colonization space are more than likely not realized.

Biowheels are a good filtration method with scientific facts to solidify their usefulness..I'm not going to debate that. In my opinion, however, they are just not necessary under normal circumstances, with so many other suitable filters out there on the market.

Any whisper filter I have owned was garbage, so the advice I would give him on replacing it would be to get the biowheel if he wants one ( I don't think they're necessary but they DO work just fine), or an Aquaclear, or any other filter that has room for sponges, bio balls, or some other type of removable biological media, preferably seperated so you can rinse them seperately, as well as the ability to add carbon when necessary. The filters that have a cartridge and that's it, really don't cut it on the biological front.

Anyway, that's my editorial for this month.

I have a penguin 170 on my 29g tank. It's my first and only tank (so far) so I don't have any experience with other filters, but it works well. I would definitely recommend them based on my experience. I think I'm slightly overstocked and my water is always clean and clear.

I have the Penguin 170 on my 20 gallon long... great filter, IMO. I've found that the impellor must be pretty clean if you want the filter to start up properly after a power outage or unplugging the filter. Also, you can't restrict the intake of the water too much or the biowheel won't turn. Other than that, I love the filter.

I run a Whisper 20 on my ten gallon. Couldn't resist buying it secondhand for five bucks. Works like a charm, and I love the adjustable flow on it... the slowest filtering is even gentle enough for newborn guppy fry, which I have plenty of.

Of course, the ten gallon DID minicycle when I changed out the substrate... the twenty didn't even minicycle when I hit the tank with antibiotics to get rid of the blue-green algae. The biowheel sat in the ten gallon to keep the bacteria healthy. Yay for biowheels.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~