The bio wheel was introduced to the aquarium hobby by Marineland in 1990. It was probably designed and tested in the late 80's. As I said, it was adapted from use in sewage treatment plants. If his friend was the designer, his friend came out with a great innovation to aquarium filtration.
Marineland Emperor 400 Power Filter
- Thread starter Warlock
- Start date
That is the exact problem though. I used to recommend and like the Emperor 400, I used them in the late 90's a lot and had a lot of them I collected from garage sales and such. I had chipped impellers that ran like new, and cell-pore in the extra media slot. Anyhow, I quit doing fish after my divorce, got rid of everything, and when I came back to fish again I bought the new Emperor 400b.
The main design difference is the old one has the pull tab in the back for flow and the new one doesn't anymore. The big issue - the noise. Marineland got cheap and greedy as far as I'm concerned. They had a great product and changed it, now it's noisy. This doesn't come from running just one 440b either, I called Marineland and worked with them over 4 months to resolve the noise issue - ultimately ending in no resolution. They actually sent out 3 Emperor 400b filters over the first month to replace the problem filter, also sending a prepaid return box for the first filter. After it still wasn't quiet they offered me a different filter, and sent out a Magnum 350 Pro. Funny thing is, when the Pro arrived I decided to give it a good check over and found a fin was completely broken off the impeller. The impeller was not broken in shipping or assembly - the fin missing wasn't in the body of the canister at all - meaning it broke off in the factory and was assembled broken, passed quality control, and shipped to me - to replace a noisy 400b for the forth time. I again called Marineland, and was offered a fix, and sent two Penguin 350 filters. Now the two Penguin 350 filters have been ok, I've had to reset them on occasion to quiet them down again but nothing else.
I normally wouldn't be so vocal about this, but what this person is saying is exactly what is wrong - they are noisy and annoying and it is because Marineland has lost the quality it used to have. I still recommend them - if you find an old 400. Customer service with Marineland is good at least for now.
You should put this quote in your sig. so people know what to expect when they buy and sell from you here in the forum. Spend the $5 to buy a new one or just stick a sponge over the end.
On topic, I have an older 400 that came with a CL tank and I keep it on my 75 with 4 filter pads as a polisher, I never replace the pads just rinse them. As far as biowheels go, I don't believe the hype, there are much more effective means of bio out there. I would not buy a new one as I think they are not a good value. If I were to ever buy a HOB again it would be an aquaclear 110.
Good advice about Warlock putting that quote in his signature. LOL!
I use Aquaclears and Emperors. The hype about the biowheel is true. The more oxygen that the beneficial bacteria are exposed to, the more efficiently they will work. Whether you use a bio wheel, bio balls, or whatever, exposing the media to air and water provides more oxygen for the bacteria than just exposing them to water.
I'm not saying biowheels don't work, the technology has been proven in sewage treatment, I just don't believe that they work all that well the way marineland has implemented them. I've had my bio wheels stop turning for a week because the spray bars had clogged and I did not see any ammonia where when I replaced a basket of my matrix in my canister to put in some purigen I did get a small mini cycle.
