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OK, I'm kinda new to this aquarium thing, only having had my tanks set up for a few months now, even tho we kept a nice bunch of fish when I was a kid. As such, I have two questions.
1. What is a protien skinner, what does it do, what's its purpose?
2. What are bio wheels, what do they do and how do they work?
ok, so its really more like siz questions or something. thanks in advance for answering my query

Protein skimmers are for SW tanks....

Biowheels are a type of filter for FW tanks. It's simply a wheel....similar to a paddle wheel that goes on the front of some filters. The idea is that it provides an additional surface for bacteria to inhabit.

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babel is right, just thought i would include more information for ya to help ya out.

protien skimmer collects the water off the surface and removes any floating debrie. in salt water tank protien stays on the surface and its not good in the tank so its removed. ( not a salt addict so thats the best i got for ya lol )

Biowheel...this is more my thing i got 4 of these bad boys heheh. like babel said it looks alot like a paddle wheel. as the water over flows out of the filter is causes this wheel to turn in the water flow. this causes the "paddles" to dip into the water then be exposed to the air. this is GREAT for bacteria growth. the good bacteria that helps keep a tank stable. now in most other filters this bacteria lives on the filter pad or inside the filter itself. this is true for a biowheel also but when you clean you filter and pad the wheel is untouched. so the bacteria begin to reside mostly here after time goes by. you wipe out the bacteria on the pads form maintence and the bacteria on the wheel grows more.

the big advantage to all this bacteria growing on the wheel is you dont have to worry about changing your filter pads or tearing apart your filter for maintence. i wash my filter pads under a water faucet, many others do it in a water change bucket with old water to try to save thier bacteria best they can. but as you can imagin cleaning a dirty filter in dirty water isnt exactly productive lol.

another big advantage is it makes it SO easy to seed another tank to help it cycle. you just drop a wheel in the filter and let it go for a few week before you start a new tank up. also good for QT tanks, you just have a tiny wheel inside your filter basket for a mini or something and instant cycle a 10g.

downfalls...there is one MINOR problem i have found with these filters. they CAN be noisy. they dont have to be but they will be if your tank isnt full and topped off regulerly. can be a hassle in a bedroom as i have found and even worse if your tank is slightly off level. there are other tricks like haveing slices of foam held on with a rubberband on the over flow to even the stream makeing it alot quieter. this reduces the amoutn of agitation on the tank though.

anyway hope this is enough info to help ya out.

Sin in Style

thank you so much, sin and babel. you answered my questions very well, and told me just what I needed to hear. a lot of info on protien skimmers not necessary, I'm a fw guy too. the bio-wheel thing looks like something I may look into. Can you just get a wheel and put it on your filter? (prolly stupid question) Or would I need to go out and get a whole new filter setup?

It depends on what kind of filter you have, some filters you can add a bio-wheel, but very few. You will probably have to go out and buy a new filter. I had a bio wheel for a while but i got rid of it after the i was so fed up with the noise and the fact that it kept stopping repeatedly.

I tried putting a biowheel on my AC....note keyword "tried" .

If your getting a new filter anyway and think that a biowheel is for you then go ahead and get one. If you have a fully functioning filter now...I'd' say not to worry.


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I found detailed instructions once on how to add a biowheel to an aquaclear filter. I wish I'd bookmarked the site because I don't remember where I found it. I'm going to do some searching and if I find it I'll post it here. I know the instructions were for an AC500 and it took 2 penguin 170 wheels. I don't recall there being instructions for smaller AC filters though.

I wish you'd had it bookmarked too jason before I went and melted holes in my AC 200 with a soldering iron.

.

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well, off the top of my head I believe it was rather simple. basically you just need the right sized wheels and a thin metal rod to hold them in place. you drill a hole just big enough for the rod to go through and of course this goes through the very center of the biowheel. I've never examined a biowheel to see if there's a hole in the center so if there's not you'd have to drill this too. you position the wheel so it just sits down into the flow of water which is what will keep the wheel moving. there would of course be no spray bar. dabbing a little silicone on both sides of the drilled hole would help keep the metal bar in place and prevent any possible water from getting out this hole.

I'm not sure what sized wheels work on other sizes of AC filters, but I definitely remember for a 500 you need 2 penguin 170 wheels. If I can find a cheap drill I might give this a shot to see how it works out.