Bio Wheel Stopped... Please Help!

[Cantbesaved]

Well... Noticed the flow was reducing in my filter, the bio wheel was getting slow, and the little overflow spout was gushing (you can see in the pics). So I did a water change today, and rinsed the filter media in old tank water... when I replaced it, the wheel would not move at all now... I put the wheel in the tank to float around for now, but please help. should I change to a brand new filter? here are pics of what I am explaining...

 

[wendywc]

When you remove the filter media does the water flow again normally and spin the biowheel? If so the filter media should be better rinsed or replaced. If that's not it, then try scrubbing out the filter box, inlet, and outlet with a pipe cleaner.

 

[Cantbesaved]

When you remove the filter media does the water flow again normally and spin the biowheel? If so the filter media should be better rinsed or replaced. If that's not it, then try scrubbing out the filter box, inlet, and outlet with a pipe cleaner.

Yea, when I take it out all is fine, and the wheel spins. I have only had this media a 5-6 weeks (as long as I have had this tank). I don't want to change if I dont have to... Specially since I have heard of so many people using their medias for years... Is there a way I can take the media apart and take out the carbon crap in there? Or should I leave it all alone?

I got the wheel to spin, by pushing the media down all the way, then lifting it JUST so that the water flowing over, is hitting the media, and it is all going back down past the bio-wheel... but I fear that it may not be filtering some water at the bottom... =( Damn Marineland! lol

And if I do change it, will I have to re-cycle the tank?

 

[Cantbesaved]

Actually, I did what I said at the end there. I cut open the media at the VERY top, and emptied all the chunks of carbon out. Then I stretched the media over the hole, and put it back in. It is flowing fine now, fully inserted! And the hole is above where the water level is in the filter. so I am in the clear

 

[OldMan47]

If the wheel has been operating the whole time you cycled the tank, it contains a lot of your bacteria. Replacing the filter cartridge should not cause too much trouble. On the other hand, you should be able to rinse that cartridge well enough to get good flows going in your filter without the spill happening around the edges. I have one almost the same that I have been using for years now. The cartridge gets a good rinsing when I clean the filter but I have no problems with getting enough flow for the wheel. You can see a small thin sponge that looks like just a black mark in the picture. It is between the filter cartridge and the wheel. It needs to get rinsed at the same time as the cartridge or it will start to plug up on you too. I would not be surprised if you hadn't even noticed it becasue it is so thin. It is advertised by marineland as a biofilter on the filters that don't have a wheel on them and is really too small to do much else but it will plug on you.

 

[Cantbesaved]

You can see a small thin sponge that looks like just a black mark in the picture.

I am not seeing this... I just looked at my filter media and it is a black plastic piece, with the blue fibers on the one side, and there WAS carbon on the inside... that is all...

I tried rinsing it a lot, even scrubbed a bit of crap off, and it still was not working... only once I got the carbon out, did it work right. I will run some tests tomorrow, and checl of the water seems cloudy, in case my slit is making it not filter (Doubt it tho, I pulled the stuff up high). If I get issues, i will try replacing it. Thanks for the info.

 

[OldMan47]

The only way I have been able to access the sponge I was talking about is to first remove the cartridge and then it is visible up against the side of the filter housing nearest the wheel. It may be that they have started making their filters without that piece now. It never did do much good anyway.

 

[wendywc]

Glad you're all okay now. Changing the media/cartridge does not re-cycle the tank, BTW. The biowheel is what holds your good bacteria.

 

[Cantbesaved]

Glad you're all okay now. Changing the media/cartridge does not re-cycle the tank, BTW. The biowheel is what holds your good bacteria.

Oh ok. Yea I was not sure about that... I actually made a post about it because the whole idea of the bio-wheel is to keep the beneficials in there... but A lot of people say not to toss your old filter, just rinse, because the bacteria is there... I also thought that maybe the filter protected ammonia and nitrites from getting past to the wheel.

 

[Bignose]

Just so you know, cbs: the biowheel was invented to be modeled after similar structures found in wastewater treatment plants. The whole point of the biowheel is to expose the ammonia oxidizing bacteria and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (the cycling bacteria) to the air, where the concentration of oxygen is somewhere around 10,000 times higher than the concentration of oxygen in water. As you can probably infer, those bacteria need oxygen to do their cycling work.

If your biowheel ever stops spinning again -- for whatever reason (clogged filter again, broken pump in the unit, power loss, etc.) the first thing you want to do is float the biowheel in the tank. 1) The bacteria will die if dried out, so you want to keep them wet. 2) The bacteria on the wheel will continue to process the ammonia and nitrite. So, the tank won't be anywhere as in bad of shape as they would have otherwise. A few years back a bad ice storm took out power for over three days. By floating the biowheel in the tanks, I had zero losses and zero ammonia and nitrite only 2 hours after the power came back on.

The advice about not replacing the media is for those filter that don't have biowheels. Something like a sponge filter, or canister filter. Your biowheel filter will have the cycling bacteria primarily colonized on the biowheel itself. That is the whole point of the biowheel.

 

[Amunet]

Lol..... I have 2 biowheel filters. 1 in the 28gal, 1 built in in the 5 gal. And both have stopped spinning a loooooong time ago.
No idea what happened, but thankfully, I never had a problem w/ there not being enough beneficial bacteria.
I'll have to test out some stuff and see if I can get both spinning again. heh

 

[kribensis12]

^ same here. Mine stopped spinning aswell. I really need new filter cartridges. I mean, you can only clean 2 filter pads for so long ( almost a year), and then they need replaced. Mine stopped spinning forever ago. Them i completely cleaned out EVERYTHING! If it came apart, i took it apart. I took a tooth brush and got everything out, and WOOSSSHHHH, it started working again. Well, now it dosent, and i have cleaned it. I might try take out the carbon, but that will be just plain nasty. 1 year of gunk and carbon. EWWWWW

 

[Cantbesaved]

If your biowheel ever stops spinning again -- for whatever reason (clogged filter again, broken pump in the unit, power loss, etc.) the first thing you want to do is float the biowheel in the tank.

OK thanks. Yea I heard about people doing that, and so I did as soon as it stopped spinning. it never dried out and was never stopped for more than maybe 5 min.

So I should be able to swap out my filter media with a brand new one with no problems, correct? Next time mine is clogged I may do that Thanks for the info!

 

[wendywc]

If you have filter cartridges that lie flat, then you can easily replace the cartridge with mesh bags. However, if you have cartridges that are vertical (like the OP), there are media trays/baskets (if you can find the right size) or you can use various filter pads and just cut them to fit.

 

[Cantbesaved]

yea, mine are vertical tray types. I will check the store to see if they have stuff for good custom filters, otherwise I may try to use a new one and hope the bio wheel holds the bacteria, as it should. haha