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I'm looking for some pros and cons of the two types of bio media. This would be for a 40 gal or less tank. Thanks!

More specifically-Marineland Penguin Bio-Wheel vs. Hagen Aqua Clear...?

Hi tetrasrcool,

The one downside that I know off is that Bio Wheels are not very suitable when tanks have added CO2 injection to increase plant growth. The wheel creates a lot of water to air contact which leads to CO2 dissolving out of the tank faster.

I don't know about the price of Bio Wheel filters, but my AquaClear HOBs with 2 sponges (and nothing else) do the trick. If they are cheaper then this would be another difference. No better effect but more expensive.

Hope this helps a little,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Jus a question..I have a planted 46 gal bow with penguin bio wheel and no c02..So are bio wheels bad for planted tanks.. or just bad for planted tanks with c02?..

No filter is "bad" for plants as such. If your tank is not OVER stock with plants, whatever filter you use is ok and you should not lose sleep over it.

Back on topic, I prefer HOB sponge vs wheels. Why? Cheaper and does the same job. If you want to move to a better filter, go for canisters, such as Fluval or if you have money to burn, Eheim.

Sponge

I have no experience with the Hagen filter, but I have Marineland Penguin and/or Emperor biowheels on six of my tanks -- two 55 gallons, a 30, a 20 and two 10 gallons -- and have been extremely happy with them. They've all run perfectly for at least three years, with no maintenance other than the periodic cleaning with an algae brush.

They're not cheap, but I've never priced Hagens HOBs, so I'm not sure they're necessarily any more/much more expensive.

However, purchase price is only part of the issue -- if $$$ is a big issue, you'll want to look at the price of replacement cartridges (or sponges, in the case of a Hagen???) for both. The replacement filter pads for the biowheels aren't cheap, although my LFS recently started carrying generic ones that are a lot less expensive.

Also, FYI, if you have to medicate your tank, you have to either take the Marineland filter pads out or slit them open and remove the carbon, which is sealed into it. It's kind of a pain, but fortunately (knocks wood very hard) I don't have to medicate very often so that's not much of an issue.

I do love my biowheels, and in theory the "wheel" part (which never has to be replaced) provides a permanent place for bacteria to grow. Therefore, the theory goes, even when changing filter cartridges, you don't upset the bacterial colonies much and thereby reduce the risk of a mini-cycle.

But I've had tanks with non-biowheel HOB filters, too, and to be honest, never had a problem with mini-cycles with them, either. So ... who knows.

Also I don't add CO2 to my tanks, so the other potential problem that Little Fish mentioned isn't an issue for me.

Last edited by lmuha at 01-Jan-2006 18:23

saltnewbie,

If you inject CO2, either via DIY or presurized, in your tank then you would like to keep surface agitation as minimal as possible (exchange of CO2 from water into air). A Bio Wheel lets a lot of oxygen access the water by creating a large contact surface for little water at the time.

So, in short, if the options on a tank with CO2 injection are only Bio Wheel or AC HOB then the AC is clearly the better choice. If there is no CO2 injection then this particular point does not matter in the evaluation of which one is better.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I've got a couple Penguin 125's and a Whisper 20-40 on my 29 gal...

I used to like the biowheels, but I had a couple problems with them. They make too much noise... I hate little splashy noises And while I was in NY for 3 weeks both of them stopped and I lost most of my bacterial colonies that were supposedly safe on them ]:|

It was a good thing that I had mom an' Daka takin' care of my tanks while I was gone... I had them go out and buy some of Hagen's New Improved Cycle an' dose the tank w/it and do some small waterchanges to keep the minicycle as mini as possible

I've since removed the biowheels... They're a bit of a PITA and not really worth it IMO.

Note on media options - I use normal sponges and filter floss and stuff in all of my filters... I don't buy premade filter inserts and stuff. You can buy a big huge package of filter floss for like $2... I gave away half of the one that I bought almost a year ago... I've been using it on filters in all of my tanks, and I've still got plenty left. IMO it's better to do custom filtration systems... I've built several of my own filters for different tanks, and I've generally been more happy with them than with ones that I buy

My vote goes to the sump... but if space/money is an issue, go with whatever flavor of HOB floats yer boat... but IME Whisper filters are some of the loudest out there ]

Personally, without CO2 injection, I prefer the biowheels. They are actually classified as a wet/dry. And, IMO, the best ones out there are either the Emperor or the new Marineland. Both of these have a spray bar to prevent the biowheel from stopping. I have not used the Marineland, but my neighbor does and loves them. Personally I have Emperors on all of my tanks that do not use air driven sponge filters.

The biowheel will give you a larger colony of beneficial bacteria than the sponge will, as they are highly oxygenated during the out of water time, or what is called the "dry" time as the wheel turns up and out of the water. So in a sense, they get the first part of the oxygen rich water, where as the sponges remain in the water getting what ever is there. As for noise, well I have never really paid any attention to the noise they make. And honestly, my over flow on my reef tank makes 100 times as much noise.

Don't get me wrong, I do use sponge filters, and they do a fine job, It's just that I prefer the biowheel.

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There is always a bigger fish...

cost effective the sponge wins. im really suprised acid doesnt use large number of sponges concidering how many tanks he runs. when running multiple tanks sponges just get cheaper and cheaper every tank you add tot he air system.

in the case of a single tank with no plans of more anytime soon then i would recommend the HOB biowheels. i use them on my show tanks and community tanks. they clean far better and move far more water. Like acid said they have a much better bio media.

in a breeding situation with multiple tanks and under stocked tanks then sponges will save a ton of money in both eqiupment and electricity.in such systems there isnt alot of need for serious water turnover and the bioload isnt so high.

here have 2 pennies

Last edited by Sin in Style at 02-Jan-2006 10:58

im really suprised acid doesnt use large number of sponges concidering how many tanks he runs

actually, I do, lol. Just those tanks that do not have sponge filters all have Emperors on them. All breeders have sponges, and most fry tanks. All my sponges run off a single linear piston pump. Very cost effective. And very quiet.

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There is always a bigger fish...

ok that makes more sense heheh. sponge is deffinetly the ticket when it comes to cost effective especielly when running more then say 2 tanks lol. show tanks the power filters are deffinetly needed though. i couldnt imagin trying to run sponges in my 75g show tank conciderding my filters fill up weekly. (2 pengiun 330s and a eheim 2222 canister) at the same time i couldnt see fry living in there either. to much movement and to many intakes to dodge lol.

I've never noticed any noise from my biowheels aside from the usual splash you get if you don't fill the tank up enough. All power filters do that. I also didn't notice much co2 loss so long as I kept the tank topped off but I do understand it could be a problem if you were wanted to get a really high co2 level. If your not running a heavily planted tank the increased aeration is actually a good thing. I've also only had 1 stop once in 3years because a pest snail climbed up onto the wheel and got wedged in there. Mostly I like being able to move biowheels to new tanks to cycle them and I can mess with all the filter media I want and clean the gravel and so long as the biowheels are kept wet the tank is still completely cycled. The marineland filters do have a huge downside when it comes to the cartridges. I much prefer to not run carbon on my tanks but the marineland cartridges only come preassembled with carbon. I have purigen for my chemical filtration. I never thought it worth the effort to make my own cartridges but alot of people do.

The aquaclears though have more media options and the media is probably cheaper. I think they also have adjustable flow rates so each filter model is more adaptable to the tank size and type of fish. I haven't actually used aquaclears but was thinking of tryong one on my 5g.

cheap sollution is to cut the carbon out of the back of the filter by just snipping a few plastic bars on the back for each row and shakeing it into a bag. then your free to clean the pad as many times as you want. i use a hose with a spray nozel to essentially power wash it clean and this works really well. the pads last for about a yr maybe more like this. i change them once a yr to prevent being stuck with a bad pad and not being able to get new ones. Im not sure how long they would really last.

The carbon you can buy a biobag from marineland i believe with a snapable top. it might be aquaclear. then just drop it in the media basket in the filter . just dump and refill once in a while because fills up eventually.

This is why i like the biowheels really. you can rip the pads and media out all you want and it doesnt matter because those wheels are allways there.