Bio-filtration Emergency!

[Sarah88]

ok so was doing water change and accidently let the water go below the filter input (i know, i know i should have turned it off, i was being lazy and now i learned my lesson) but apparently the 1 second that it sipped in a minute amount of air was enough to break the impellar (completely split the frikin magnet) its a penguin 350 with two biowheels, i had ceramic rings in one side and mech filtration in the other side, now until i can get a new impellar i luckily have 2 extra smaller filters that i have hooked up to it, one is now holding the ceramic rings, the other some new filter foam (the cartridge in the main filter wont fit), now my question is what do i do with the bio-wheels as neither of the 2 filters will fit it. should i just leave them floating in the tank for a couple days or will this do more harm than good?

 

[FSM]

float them in the tank.

 

[Sarah88]

ok thanks

 

[sostoudt]

thats seriously unlucky, ive never had it happen to any of my filters, and ive had your situation happen a couple times.

better luck with the next one.

 

[uncwnells]

doesnt really matter since those wheels are pretty much useless, and the bacteria that is actually housed there is minimal

 

[Sarah88]

ugh i know i have a serious aquarium curse going on right now was doing water change 2 days ago and tripped on the frikin python hose and broke the piece where the little white piece is that closes and opens the tube so had to go out to petco and get that! now i broke this impellar doing this water change UGH!!! and i dont think petco or petsmart sell impellars so im gona have to order it online and wait, LUCKILY i had some backup filters, dont know what i would have done if i hadnt (i have red terror fry in the tank so water has to stay really clean for the little babies to grow right)

is that true nells? i thought they were supposed to add ALOT of surface area for bacteria?

 

[dwilder]

that is untrue bio wheels are a great area foe bb just float them until fixed

 

[Burko]

"i thought they were supposed to add ALOT of surface area for bacteria? "

Well yes they would.

Whether lots, (however many that is) of bacteria choose to live there, is anyones guess.

 

[Sarah88]

yeah i am floating them, does anyone know where to buy impeller from i searched online and everywhere i looked they wanted like 14 something plus shipping

 

[sostoudt]

i think the bio wheels have dont have particular high surface areas compared to other media types, but there supposed to be better at using it working on the wet/dry theory; that the exposure to air intravenously by the spin action heavily oxygenates the bacteria allowing them to eat more waste.