Penguin Bio Wheel as a fuge???

[jgoal55]

I am replacing a HOB Fuge from CPR with a Penguin Bio Wheel 350 because I like the flow I get across the top of the water with the Bio Wheel. Also, since I am not doing seahorses in this tank anymore I dont really have the need for as good a fuge as the HOB. Basically I am willing to sacrifice the effectiveness as a fuge of the HOB CPR for the flow of the 350.

The question I have is this.....if I can fnd a light to fit it, instead of using the carbon filter pads that are commonly used with these bio-wheels why not put some sand and some macrolalage in there, a couple of pieces of rubble rock and have that serve as my "fuge"....I know it wont be much since space is seriously limited but will it work better than the filter pads? I imagine so but wanted to see what you gus thought.

 

[blind1993]

what about plumbing the fuge into this filter.

 

[msnajkowski]

What are you doing withthe fuge? Do you have the penguin filter yet? If not I have one to trade for the fuge.

 

[jgoal55]

yeah I have the bio wheel already so ill probably be selling the fuge....I havent decided if Ill sell the light with it or keep it.....that depends on whether I can use the bio wheel as a fuge or not.....obviously if i just use filter pads I have no need for a light.......but if i stuff the inside of the bio-wheel box with some sand, alage and rocks it'll need light....

I'll sell the fuge w/ light for $75 and w/ out light for $60....ill post that on a seperate thread though but if you want it it PM me and youll be first in line....or I wont post at all if you want it.

Blind....this is a Bio wheel filter most commonly used for FW.....as far as I know uyou cant plumb anything into it....(although im sure some ppl could find a way)....basicaly i want to use the impeller housing as a HOB fuge.

 

[blind1993]

tried it with my bio wheel.

here are the pros and cons

pros
got a fuge
saved space

cons
sometimes clogged the bio wheel
bio wheel makes nitrates
sand will just make the whole tank cloudy.

it worked pretty well intill the oring decided that my floors needed 20g of saltwater.

 

[jgoal55]

yeah I would remove the bio wheel as most ppl do in SW i believe....the sand is a good point....thats waht i was woried about was the clogging....anyone else have an opinion on this?>

 

[raisingtwo2006]

I know mine has the two partitions that separate the 'filter boxes' from the impeller part by about an inch of wall. Maybe if you put the small layer of sand and then a very sparce crushed coral type of weight, then slowly fill it with water, it shouldn't really cause too much sand cloud... I know, when I empty mine periodically, it has a layer of sand in the bottom anyway Not posititve.. so ppl, feel free to critique.


As far as a light.. I don't know how much light a fuge needs, but what about one of those clip on lights like for books (I think they come in pink, blue, purple.. not sure what they are called)

 

[raisingtwo2006]

http://www.biggerandbrighter.com/book-lights-magnifiers/items/GP-08.html">http://www.biggerandbrighter.com/book-lights-magnifiers/items/GP-08.html</a>


Maybe like this..

 

[jgoal55]

My bio wheel is set up the same way so it might work.....I was even thinking of putting gravel instead of sand. But I am not sure how gravel would do in a fuge. I wonder if I could also just go without any substrate I
in there at all just some small pieces of live rock and some cheato and nothing else.

As for the light I have the one that I had for the HOB fuge that actually fits the bio wheel ok. Those are PC's. I don't think those book lights would provide enough growth foe the cheato.

 

[raisingtwo2006]

Ahh, well, I tried

 

[jgoal55]

lol. Thanks. I think I am going to give it shot unless someone suggests otherwise. The question is gravel, sand, or nothing in the box?

 

[blind1993]

nothing in the box. more room for macro.

now this is what i thought of. drill a hole at the bottom of the bio wheel. then get the fuge connected to it air tight. so that it makes a canister filter sort of.

or drill it on the side.
connect the two with a pvc pipe
make sure that both have a water level of the same.

if you give me a few min i will draw it out for you.

 

[blind1993]

ok here is the first option
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[dannybradley]

I think the real issue here is that the flowrate is too high for a refugium. You'll zip all the water right through the filter before the algae has a good chance to clean it before returning it to the tank.

 

[jgoal55]

hey blind thanks for the drawings......i think thats not quite what i am going for right now as it way too time consuming......but thanks.

Danny, assuming the flow rate is too high, which it is......the question becomes.....do i just use the pads or still give it a shot with macro and some LR?

Which is the lesser of two evils i guess is the question?

 

[jgoal55]

ok, sorry to bump this to the top again but I am going to tear down and re- set-up the tank agian tonight and so i need a decisive opinion/answer on this as soon as possible.....

here are the options:

1) Penguin filter used with standard filter pads
2) Penguin filter stuffed with cheato and small pieces of LR with a PC light
3) Penguin Filter same as a bove but with a gravel substrate ( i thinnk the decision was made that sand wouldnt work because it would clog the impeller)

Of course, there is no actual "bio-wheel" use in any of these set ups.

The tank will host an antennatta Lion fish and nothing else...it has a skimmer.

Thanks as always for the help!

 

[dannybradley]

It depends on what you need the filter to do. If you need better NH3/NO2 reduction so your system can support more livestock, you can fill it with liverock. I've set up a handful of HOB filters, including Penguins, as just biological filters using Seachem Matrix Biological Media.

If you need to reduce NO3, you'll need to slow the filter down(which may cause the motor to heat up) somehow and fill it with Seachem Denitrate, zeolite(common freshwater NH3 remover) or Caulerpa and live rock. You'll probably only want around 30GPH max for this. You can accomplish this by rigging a weak powerhead(100gph or less) to it and not using the internal motor. The head pressure should slow it down fairly well.

Thridly, if you want to polish your water can catch a bunch of detritus for easy removal, pads or filter floss(really inexpensive) is the way to go.

I've used all of these techniques and they worked fairly well for what they are. Hope this helps!

 

[dannybradley]

If it's just a lion, those guys produce plenty of NH3. If you don't have a bunch of live rock in the system and a good sand bed, I would definitly do the Seachem Matrix or Live rock and full flow.

 

[jgoal55]

awesome thanks danny...Ive got about a 1 1/2 - 2 in sandbed in the tank.....I'll probably have around 20-30lbs of LR total......with that and from waht you are saying I think i'll go the LR cheato route and maybe throw in some matrix in a filter bag......

I would of course like to have clean water as well....do you think that will polish the water at all?

 

[dannybradley]

Not really. You need the fine mesh to catch all the particles.