Bio-Wheels

I've been reading through previous threads and stumbled across the recommendation of removing the bio wheels from the filter because they are nitrate factories? I have an emperor 400 working on my 80 gallon and I was wondering if i should remove the bio-wheels. Besides the small amount of glass algae that simply comes off with a swipe of the Mag float my tank is I believe doing well. What are your suggestions. TAKE THEM OUT?

 

usually people do because of the reason you said. If it were me I wouldn't do it unless my tank was having algae problems. Why mess up a good thing right? I would leave it up to you.

 

You also see the same comment about bio-balls, yet many people are successful, still using wet/dry filters with them. For my medic tank, my filter was the smaller versoin with a bio-wheel, it worked well....till the pump quit....

If you are woried about an increasing level of nitrates, I'd encourage you to look at a coil denitrator, easy to make one and inexpensive to purchase, if you have a sump, even easier to use...other wise, I'd stick with routine water changes...

Looking at your tank posts, it looks like you are doing well....

 

the small bio wheels cannot host enough variety of bacteria to support filtration for a reef tank.

You would need a huge one like the one in the new marineland sump.

Removing them would be a good idea.

If your nitrate levels remain stable in a safe range, then its no big deal. you bio load is quite low, which is a good thing.