When to remove biowheel?

[SaltyMist]

I have a eclipse 12, that cycled in a little over 2 weeks (never really spiked in anything, amonia got up to about 0.50 and nitrites got up to about the same level, then after two weeks, amonia and nitrites hit 0, and nitrates went up).

Anyway, it's got 1 to 2 inches of live sand, and about 15 to 18 lbs of liverock. It's current inhabitants are a domino damsel, a green serpent star and a snail.

What Im concerned about is removing the biowheel now, that there is inhabitants in the tank and having a spike or recycle and killing the inhabitants. Should I just keep the biowheel for a couple months, and keep up on regular water changes (say 2 gallons a week - or do I need more gallons to be changed weekly?) and then remove the biowheel after say 2 or 3 months? Or will delaying the removal of the biowheel cause more problems as time goes on?

Thanks,

 

[Anonymous]

Splitting hairs. You're not concerned about dumping critters in an uncycled tank of only 2 weeks old, removing the biowheel is moot in the face of that. Take the biowheel out now and be rid of it, keep up on the water changes.

Good luck!
-me

 

[Juck]

I'd echo what Hwarang said if you have a skimmer on your tank or some other way to oxygenate the water.

I have an eclipse biowheel on my 37g tall reef and it works fine,, not a trace of nitrates. I don't have a skimmer on this tank and without the biowheel I think I'd have pretty low oxygen dissolved oxygen levels.

 

[SaltyMist]

Not trying to be argumentive here, but it went through it's cycle, it was a very small cycle, possibly because the liverock has been sitting in the tanks at the LFS for a couple months and is already cured, and when taken home each rock was completely covered in their tank water in plastic bags.

So to me, it did its cycle, and wasnt a huge cycle that one might find happening if they were to buy online liverock that is shipped somewhat dry.

Anyway, while the tank is certainly nowhere close to being mature, it has already cycled, and thats why those few critters went into the tank. and are all doing just fine and water paramaters are good. Though Im still only testing for amonia, nitrite and nitrates and so far amonia and nitrites are still reading 0, while nitrates have risen to 10ppm, which I think will go down when I do it's water change once my saltwater has had time to mix in the container with the powerhead and heater in it.

Thanks for the response, anyone else concur that pulling the biowheel now would be better off then pulling it later?

 

[SaltyMist]

Juck,
It does have a surface skimmer, but thats not a protein skimmer, it just sucks some water down from the top of the tank, thus removing any floating matter, and or oil slicks and almost works like a protein skimmer in that, the clear plastic tube gets filled with airbubbles before being sucked down and up into the existing filter. Im wondering if this would be enough of an oxygen enhancer to do the trick.

Thanks,

 

[Anonymous]

*shrug*
Regardless of the cycle etc, removing the biowheel probably won't be that big of an impact if you're aggressive about your W/C's ... just rip the sucker out

 

[Meloco14]

Yeah, your live rock and sand are doing more than your biowheel at this point, and if you're having nitrate problems pulling the biowheel will only help that. It is my understanding that the biowheel only supports nitrifying bacteria, which take ammonia and nitrite and convert it to nitrate. The DEnitrifying bacteria, that live in the anaerobic parts of live rock and deep in the sand bed, are the ones that take nitrate and convert it to nitrogen gas. So since you aren't having any ammonia or nitrite problems, I don't see any reason why you need to keep the biowheel in. Personally I have used a power filter with a biowheel on newly set up tanks just to polish the water, and not using the biowheel has never caused any problems. So IMO youre in the clear...
And the eclipse filter should aerate the water enough. If you're at all concerned, just let your water level drop a little, so the water has a little bit of a drop from the filter outlet to the main tank water. This will help aerate.

 

[ricky1414]

took both off of my emperor 400, no ill effects. some corals actually opened more afterwards.

 

[brandon4291]

You would have to heavily overstock the tank and overfeed it, or neglect it long enough to get a notable dent (stressed fish) in the dissolved oxygen levels. Stress will come from other chemical factors before it comes from lack of oxygen in a standard setup. The biowheel won't make a difference in O even if you lab test a before and after sample correctly. Now you could make such a difference in a controlled setup, but in a tank with a relatively large open-top and powered circulation there won't be any. I want to state that biowheels are not bad! Just keep them clean and free of detritus, they certainly do not hurt anything by adding extra surface area in the system.

Agree totally about the LR doing the current nitrification, the biowheel is only adding more butter to the popcorn (drums up a weak analogy) and will also not reflect any change in the ammonia or nitrate/trite values of the current established system. Biowheels, canister filters, sponge filters are all just fine in a marine/reef aquarium. They just require lots of cleaning because they can accumulate particles that continue to breakdown into nitrates, like storing up little bits of trash that would otherwise be removed in simple siphon water changes. We can also do the effort of removing and squeezing out a sponge or powerfilter--it is just easier to leave that stuff out.

Our live rock and live sand is so porous and minute that most surface area issues are taken care of provided we stay within reasonable fish bioload/feeding levels

 

[dallast1]

i agree with all before me here. i too, still have the biowheel going on my 6 gal. eclipse -- now going for nearly 4 years! i think i am more superstitious when i really think about it. no real reason to keep since finally all is going well in tank.

just see how your animals are fairing and decide from there.

 

[SaltyMist]

i agree with all before me here. i too, still have the biowheel going on my 6 gal. eclipse -- now going for nearly 4 years! i think i am more superstitious when i really think about it. no real reason to keep since finally all is going well in tank.

just see how your animals are fairing and decide from there.

Have you, or are you experiencing any abnormal nitrate spiking with the biowheel in your tank for the past 4 years? How much water are you changing each week?

 

[dallast1]

no real spiking per se. but again, i wasn't taking constant readings. actually, i quit testing for nitrate long ago.

but to combat the hair algae plaque i had for over a year, i finally resorted to every other day changes of half a gallon with natural sea water. i think this has made all the difference in my tank. i do not dose anything!