i was wondering what causes the bio-wheel to stop spinning. ive heard some ideas but wanted to know for sure. a guy i talked to said they stop spinning because there a crap filter and they swell over time, and a petcare manager at petsmart said they stop spinning because they only spin when they need too. any ideas??
bio-wheel
- Thread starter sweeTang21
- Start date
I never had a problem with my Bio Wheel maybe the reason if it stop's turning is it's dirty or the flow of water comming from the filter is not enough to push it but like I said never had a problem with it why have you tried personally to use one? The ways those people answered your question is like they did not know what they are talking about specially the one from Pet smart sound like not a smart answer at all..
Here's what you do. You see the purple "U" thing that holds the ends of the bio-wheel? It might have some build-up and this might cause more friction and stops/slows down the rotation of the wheel. Clean it, clean it real well. Other than that I don't think there is anything else that will cause it to stop because it is moved by the flow of water which is naturally cascading. I have a Penguin 350 and one side seems to rotate slower than the other at the moment which is not a problem as long as it rotates. I bought the filter used, noticed the other wheel was slower than the other, I cleaned the wheel holder and it sped up a bit although it is stll slower than the other wheel..
I've had the same problem and solved it to a degree by cleaning the ends of the bio wheels and the purple holders. i also put a cpl drops of melafix on them as a bit of a lube. sounds funny, but it worked for a while. Never really spun as fast as new, but any spinning is good for them. I retired the filter for a while and just recently went to go buy some new wheels as i had tossed the old ones. Turns out it's about the same or cheaper to buy a whole new filter than just the wheels.
it has been a long dead subject for me but i heard her tell another customer that, so it opened the door again. anyways to answer some of your thoughts. i did everything u guys suggested except for the melafix. cool idea BTW. it never seems to work. i gave it a bit of a spin and it stopped dead in its tracks. i got a new canister filter a year ago and its still working great. a bit of a story for everyone....i was at work the other day and i found another tank, took out all of the marineland filters i had and set them up. the wheels didnt even bother to spin. the water level is good because its backing up due to the wheel not spinning. anyways long story short, i am planning to run the filter without the wheel and use a bio-max or my favorite, matrix. ill see how this works. i just wonder when the manager was thinking when she said "it only spins when it needs too". thanks to those who have posted and thanks in advance for those who will or may post.
I switched over to Emporer filters rather than penguins for this very reason but I still have a number of the older units in use. What I've learned in over 25 years of using these filters is that on the non spray bar models...Water flow is critical to the bio-wheel movement. Build up on the inside serfaces of the pick up tube and even on the inside of the filter itself is almost always the cause of this. You should never use a foam pre-filter on these units for this exact reason.
The filter won't overflow the way it does when it needs servaced as quickly when the flow rate drops so you use this as a guide. If your not having to clean the filter pads as often it's a good bet that your pickup tube and/or inpeller support housing are partially clogged and in need of attention.
You should NEVER nned to clean off the bio-wheel or the bearings...I have units that have been running continuiously for over 8 years and I've yet to need to do this. The pick up tube however should be very well cleaned at least once a month.
The filter won't overflow the way it does when it needs servaced as quickly when the flow rate drops so you use this as a guide. If your not having to clean the filter pads as often it's a good bet that your pickup tube and/or inpeller support housing are partially clogged and in need of attention.
You should NEVER nned to clean off the bio-wheel or the bearings...I have units that have been running continuiously for over 8 years and I've yet to need to do this. The pick up tube however should be very well cleaned at least once a month.
i clean the tubing out with big pipe cleaners, toothbrush to the impeller and clean the pegs on the wheel.
yeah i dont clean the bio-wheel itself. that defeats the point of the wheel lol. neways i know there supposed to spin all the time, but i was wondering which one was right. i switched to canister filters now because all my tanks are large enough to use one. thanks for the input!