# Adding air stone into biowheel?



## b_justb (Jan 23, 2008)

I am currently suffering from FOD (Filter Obsession Disorder).

Since bio-media requires oxygen to be effective, what do you all think about the idea of adding a small air stone on the back end of a bio-wheel so that the forced water is highly oxygenated as it hits the bio-media? I have added AC bio-media to the bio-wheel tank canister after the mechanical but before the wet/dry wheel assembly. Will more air = better bio filter? Thoughts?


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

BioWheels, by design, expose the bacteria to air (oxygen) but keep them moist. Adding an air stone is more likely to interfere with the motion of the biowheel than it is to improve itâ€™s effectivenessâ€¦

I think along the same lines thoughâ€¦ Iâ€™ve often wondered if adding an airstone in the media chamber of my AC 110â€™s would make the bio media more effective.

It is well known that our â€œbeneficial bacteriaâ€


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

The design of the bio-wheel already has the mix with oxygen in mind. It is not necessary to add a air stone and like said it would more than likely mess with the flow and damper the movement of the wheel.

If you look here....http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_setup_list.php...you will find a neat little trick by scrolling to the bottom under Power Filter "Tricks".


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## b_justb (Jan 23, 2008)

I may not have been specific enough. Sorry all. I use my bio-wheel as a bio-filter only. I have minimal mechanical before a good size pouch of porous bio-media in the HOB bio-wheel filter. Only a small percentage of that bio-media is skimmed by the surface water and the rest is submerged. I was thinking the air stone would help with the submerged portion. I do this because I don't like messing with the bio-media when I need to rinse out my mechanicals in my 2 AquaClear110â€™s filters. I like to keep the bio-media as much hands off as possible. About 6 months ago I really messed up my tank by messing with the bio-media.

I get consistent readings of 80 on nitrates. I understand that should be between 40-50. I do 1 to 2 25-30% water changes weekly. (55g tank African Malawi. 22 adults 4 fry)

I am thinking that my bio-filtration might be a bit weak and thatâ€™s why I canâ€™t get the nitrates down from 80. All other test reads are perfect.

I may not need to do anything, as I said, I suffer from FOD


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

As said,... it is designed to run the way it is.

Some of the earlier models were simply a power head with a sponge plumbed to a T then going into two HOBs that had nothing but a spray bar spraying onto the Bi-Wheels. I loved them and they definitely did the trick.



> I was thinking the air stone would help with the submerged portion.


Did you actually follow the link I gave you :wink:

If your _Nitrates_ are so high I would look to other things.


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## b_justb (Jan 23, 2008)

JWerner2 said:


> Did you actually follow the link I gave you :wink:


It wasn't working when I replied. Then I got it to pop in. Great link! Thanks.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Bacteria eat ammonia and poops nitriteâ€¦ another bacteria eats nitrite and poops nitrateâ€¦

Nitrates are removed by you via water changeâ€¦

Freshwater tanks CAN NOT support the bacteria capable of breaking nitrate down into carbon dioxideâ€¦ such bacteria can exist in salt water (which is why salt heads do far less water changes) or in oxygen deprived water (there is a way to trickle water through a system to which depletes itâ€™s oxygen and then remove the nitrates, but they are big complicated systems that offer minimal results, not worth trying).

If you have a filter set up â€œfor bio filtrationâ€


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

[email protected] the double post...


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

Toby, does this website make your browser stall sometimes also. I find it does for me and it has to be the site cause every other one is very fast.

I ended up double posting or something a few times.


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## b_justb (Jan 23, 2008)

Toby_H said:


> But honestly it sounds like you have expectations of your bio-filtrations (removing nitrates) that are beyond bio-filtrationâ€™s capacityâ€¦


I think you are right about this. But do I really need to do more water changes than 2x a week? Holy Carp, Batman. That's a lot of water changes. I tried using Nitra-Zorb - what a waste of money that was. Maybe everyting is fine, and I need to just keep on as is. The fish are fine, all very beautiful no stress, no illness, no death. The Labs are Jack Rabbitting fry. If the water was bad would they spawn? My Yellow Fin Acei's are also doing much love dancing and I've seen her lay eggs but no fry have made it that I have seen yet. Same question about water quality and spawning with them.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Yea I think the traffic on the site has out grown the server or something. It will run smooth (for me) for several days up to a couple weeksâ€¦ then one day everything happens a little slower (on this site but not others)â€¦ on the slow days once in a while the page takes FOREVER to load and hitting submit a second time creates a double postâ€¦ even though it doesnâ€™t seem like anythingâ€™s happening.

One odd thing I find is if I hit submit and itâ€™s taking abnormally long for the next page to loadâ€¦ I can click â€œForum Indexâ€


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## b_justb (Jan 23, 2008)

Toby_H said:


> But honestly it sounds like you have expectations of your bio-filtrations (removing nitrates) that are beyond bio-filtrationâ€™s capacityâ€¦


I think you are right about this. But do I really need to do more water changes than 2x a week? Holy Carp, Batman. That's a lot of water changes. I tried using Nitra-Zorb - what a waste of money that was. Maybe everyting is fine, and I need to just keep on as is. The fish are fine, all very beautiful no stress, no illness, no death. The Labs are Jack Rabbitting fry. If the water was bad would they spawn? My Yellow Fin Acei's are also doing much love dancing and I've seen her lay eggs but no fry have made it that I have seen yet. Same question about water quality and spawning with them.


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## b_justb (Jan 23, 2008)

<delete> .............. why do I keep doing this here?


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

22 fish in a 55 plus fry is a lot of fish for a medium sized tankâ€¦ Concult the African Cichlid guys to see if they suggest you are overstockedâ€¦ Iâ€™m a CA guyâ€¦ 

Iâ€™ve eagerly watched the reports about several nitrate absorbing mediasâ€¦ Iâ€™ve not been impressed by any of them enough to spend money on themâ€¦



> If the water was bad would they spawn?


Some fish will, some wonâ€™tâ€¦ some fry can do okay in substandard conditions but most cannotâ€¦ again I would have to talk to the African Cichlid guys to know which category your species fall underâ€¦

PS - My above post discussing the stalling of this siteâ€¦ when I hit submit nothing changed except I got the little blue wheel that tells me my computer is thinkingâ€¦ I waitedâ€¦ and waitedâ€¦ then hit forum index, came back and my post was there waiting for meâ€¦


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

LMAO... at least it's not just me...


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

Also if its lagging bad and you hit refresh and then go back and look the post is right there. Oh well I can figure out short cuts I guess cause like you said this forum can be great.

I do agree with Toby that the amount of fish you have for that tank is allot especially if they are actually _full_ sized adults.

All that Nitrate absorbing BIO-media does not work for Nitrates but it does do a great job as BIO-media in general aside from Nitrates IMO if setup correctly. Its main purpose is for in a trickle or wet dry filter and it almost always states that it could be add to _other_ filters as well ( I think ).


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## fishyfishyfishy (Dec 24, 2005)

You could always use something like this on your tank to keep nitrate at or near zero:

http://midwestaquatic.com/

I've got one on my 450g. Tank is heavily stocked and my nitrate stays below 10.


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