Agreed. One other thing to note about the sparybar though. Certain carbons ( ironically Marinelands in particular) can also pass through the filter and into the sparybar clogging the holes. In the rare instances i use carbon with my emperors, this has happened. Very easy fix, but not something I would have though about beforehand.
I think the only fair way to do it is to place a biowheel filter in an empty tank (no gravel or deco) , leave the filter completely empty. Let the cycling complete, add fishes and remove the biowheel. I bet my paycheck you would see an ammonia/nitrite spike
how large is the tank? what is the bio load? if op's tank was let's say a 75g with 20 neon tetras of course you wouldn't see any ammonia spike after you removed the Emperor.as alot of other members stated the media you exchanged from the Whisper into your new cannister was more than enough to handle your current bio load in the tank that doesn't prove bio wheels don't work.
I actually always keep a spare biowheel in the top of my wet dry. Every time I've set up a new tank I've grabbed this seeded wheel thrown it on either an emp280, 400 or eclipse 2 (all 3 take the same size wheel and I own all 3 filters) add fish and never had any ammonia or nitrite. I then take the new wheel that I didn't use and put it back into my wet dry. As long as I don't set a new tank up before the wheel gets seeded with bb, Ive never had a problem. I always run one on my qt tank as well. I've given these seeded wheels to friends with new setups with the same result.
Bb just needs a good surface area to do it's job. It can be anything but the more surface area, the better. Biowheels probably don't have as much surface area as a wet/dry, sump or large canister, but it's certainly enough to support a load of fish.
I ran only a power head in a 26G holding tank for years and never had any detectable ammonia. For a six month period I had four 3-4" African Cichlids being supported only by the BB in the gravel and tank walls.
Don't underestimate the BB colonies in the substrate and tank walls.
how large is the tank? what is the bio load? if op's tank was let's say a 75g with 20 neon tetras of course you wouldn't see any ammonia spike after you removed the Emperor.as alot of other members stated the media you exchanged from the Whisper into your new cannister was more than enough to handle your current bio load in the tank that doesn't prove bio wheels don't work.
Its a 55 gallon with pretty high bioload, 8 neon tetras, 17 kuhli loaches, 3 dojos, 4 mollies, 1 dwarf gourami, 5 glofish and 1 6" sailfin pleco that is looking for a new home. For me I feel this implies that biowheels are less efficient than others types of bio media. Sure they work as any surface are works but they cannot compare to say ceramic medi, they do look cool though.
I actually always keep a spare biowheel in the top of my wet dry. Every time I've set up a new tank I've grabbed this seeded wheel thrown it on either an emp280, 400 or eclipse 2 (all 3 take the same size wheel and I own all 3 filters) add fish and never had any ammonia or nitrite. I then take the new wheel that I didn't use and put it back into my wet dry. As long as I don't set a new tank up before the wheel gets seeded with bb, Ive never had a problem. I always run one on my qt tank as well. I've given these seeded wheels to friends with new setups with the same result.
Bb just needs a good surface area to do it's job. It can be anything but the more surface area, the better. Biowheels probably don't have as much surface area as a wet/dry, sump or large canister, but it's certainly enough to support a load of fish.
so they do work, you are contradicting yourself a bit, and when you claim that they dont have as much surface area...how do you know that? Not to mention comparing two relatively small wheels to a "large conister or sump" that could have pounds of media.
so they do work, you are contradicting yourself a bit, and when you claim that they dont have as much surface area...how do you know that? Not to mention comparing two relatively small wheels to a "large conister or sump" that could have pounds of media.
No disrespect taken. I know they don't have as much surface area of my other filters purely by looking at them. My 400 gph wet dry has about 15-20 gallons of bioballs so based on flow, the wet dry wins. Probably not fair to compare the 2 but that's what I've got running, so I did compare since flowrates are comparable. By no means am I discounting the biofiltration capabilities of biowheels either. Just pointing out that although they may not have the same surface area of a canister or sump, they are certainly not " bunk" as the op stated. They still work well, just a sump would probably handle a larger bioload.
