do biowheels work??
- Thread starter CSRMUSIC
- Start date
MrTuskfish
Team RC
Bio-wheels do an excellent job with ammonia and nitrite; but nothing with nitrate. They can be used in a FOWLR tank, where nitrate is no big deal. But I wouldn't use one in a reef tank.
Rilelen
New member
My understanding is that, unlike live rock, biowheels don't foster the bacteria that is needed to convert nitrates into nitrogen gas. So - like bioballs in a wet/dry trickle filter - they will efficiently process ammonia into nitrates but not provide any denitrification. The nitrate just sits there and accumulates until you remove it manually through water changes. Live rock and deeper sand beds supply the kind of anaerobic zones you need for denitrification to occur, which helps reduce the problem of accumulating nitrates.
Now, nitrate really isn't a big deal for fish, so that's fine in a FOWLR. However, invertebrates like corals are more sensitive to nitrates and so we want to keep nitrates low in a reef tank, which makes biowheels and wet/dry trickle filters not quite as helpful for us (although they will still do an excellent job of processing ammonia up to that point). So yes, they do work, but it depends on what job you are looking for them to do.
Now, nitrate really isn't a big deal for fish, so that's fine in a FOWLR. However, invertebrates like corals are more sensitive to nitrates and so we want to keep nitrates low in a reef tank, which makes biowheels and wet/dry trickle filters not quite as helpful for us (although they will still do an excellent job of processing ammonia up to that point). So yes, they do work, but it depends on what job you are looking for them to do.
MrTuskfish
Team RC
Aerobic bacteria changes ammonia to nitrite, then nitrate. This type of bacteria grows in oxygen rich areas, like bio-wheels. The nitrate produced by the bio-wheel then finds its way into the water column (where it is dangerous to coral & other inverts) . Anaerobic bacteria changes nitrate to harmless nitrogen and lives deeper in the LR, where there is very little oxygen and flow. This bacteria will not live in oxygen rich areas, like HOB filters. If you let the outer pore areas of the LR colonize with the aerobic bacteria, instead of the bio-wheel, the nitrate is right next door to the anaerobic bacteria that finishes the job. Nitrate in the water column only finds the anaerobic bacteria by chance and this is very inefficient. Any tank will produce about the same amount of nitrate, no matter how filtration is sewt up; but the with the LR doing both jobs, much less nitrate reaches the water column. It was basically this discovery that made reef-keeping possible.
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