[mullenium]

I have a penguin 350 HOB for my 30gal planted tank and wanted to throw away the bio wheels as they always get stuck and stop spinning.

so I bought a couple boxes of some marineland ceramic rings and a 2 'Hop Socks' from my local home brew shop for 65cents each, they are basically mesh socks that you put your hops in when brewing beer so you dont have to filter them out of your wort.

wondering if these would be ok for use in my filter? I figure the fabric being an organic material might even help house the beneficial bacteria as well as the ceramic rings.

thoughts?

 

[xjclassic]

Yes that will work. The have the spot were you can place a second filter cartridge. You could put them there. Marineland also makes a media basket that you can put in that slot. You can fill it with what ever you want. I bought two of the baskets sometime ago and filled them with Matrix and chucked the bio-wheels. Work just fine.

 

[CrypticLifeStyle]

I've tried it that way in the past, but i found the media dosn't get as much flow, and it makes it easier for clogging to occur. I just freely put the media into the filter, and have been doing it that way for many years. The media is too heavy for it to ever flow into the tank.

 

[mullenium]

I've tried it that way in the past, but i found the media dosn't get as much flow, and it makes it easier for clogging to occur. I just freely put the media into the filter, and have been doing it that way for many years. The media is too heavy for it to ever flow into the tank.

do you ever need to take it out to rinse it?

 

[lauraleellbp]

Depending on how good your overall mechanical filtration is in the tank, you shouldn't have to clean biomedia too often. I might rinse mine out in tank water (NOT tap water) once or twice a year if it visibly looks too gunky.

If your tank doesn't have much other mechanical filtration, you may need to rinse more often... but I wouldn't go overboard as you'd just end up "cleaning" away the bacteria colony you're supposed to be trying to grow in them lol

I agree you probably don't need the sock, but I don't think it's a big deal if using it makes filter maintenance that much easier.

I used to use pantyhose to hold chemical and biomedia.

 

[CrypticLifeStyle]

do you ever need to take it out to rinse it?

I do maybe once or twice a year for no other reason then i feel like doing it. For mechanical filtration I just toss pillow stuffing on top of it all, and on the side where the outflow from the impeller is, and replace that once a month, and it's right there so you can easily grab it, take it out, then replace it. A whole bag of pillow stuffing is a few bucks, and lasts forever.

 

[burr740]

+1 for pantyhose

Also fwiw, it is normal for biowheels to slow way down and the spin begin to pause once they get heavily cultured. As long as it doesnt stop entirely, or long enough for the top part of wheel to dry out. Stopping in one spot for a minute or two before making another partial turn is completely normal and actually a good thing.