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Can you use a Bio-wheel filter in an aquarium that has plants2007-11-24 23:10:58

I was reading some articles online that are confusing to me, that say that bio-wheels take C02 out of the water.

Answers:

Bio-wheels, and the filter types that have them as integral components, when functioning properly, can and will allow enough CO2 to escape that it is not worth the benefit of using them in high-tech planted 'plant' tanks. You will also notice that on those sites you were visiting, the plant loads in those tanks were very high, and the fish load was very small. In short, they were aquatic gardens first, and aquariums second. If this is your goal, ditch the bio-wheel altogether as you really don't need it to support enough nitrosoma and nitrosonoma bacteria.

OTOH, if you want a 'fish' tank with plants as decorations, and need the biological filtration for larger fish loads, use a quality canister filter with large amounts of a bio filter media and keep the outlet under the water surface to minimize the surface exchange caused by breaking surface tension.

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Yes you can. Any filter is going to agitate the water surface, exchanging oxygen and CO2.

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Bio-wheels provide a home for beneficial bacteria that clean the water.

Even if they did remove CO2 (which I can't confirm or deny) it gets back in when the water flows back to the aquarium.

Also, the fish are "exhaling" CO2.

Plants are actually very beneficial to bio-wheels. They "carry" and feed beneficial bacteria.

Hope this helps.

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Generally, bacteria takes oxygen from the water, and it is bacteria that is colonized on the bio-wheel. This bacteria is actually able to use oxygen from the air though due to it's location in the filter unit. There should be no issue at all with taking CO2 out of the water, though the bio-wheel is capable of producing a huge amount of additional oxygen availibility for your fish. The plants should definitely be able to flourish still, granted you use a fertilizer, and you have enough fish to produce adequate CO2 amounts for them.

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yes of course you can use them