# Marineland Penguin Power Filter Bio Wheel Problem



## Mazaar (Nov 5, 2013)

Hey hows it going everyone,

I've been using these forums for information for my two tanks for sometime now, but i have a question that i do not think has been asked on here before.

I recently picked up a marineland 200 penguin filter with the bio wheel, i gotta say i do like it, very quiet, good water flow, however you cant adjust the intake flow. I've been noticing as times goes by, the bio wheel has been starting to spin much slower, almost stopping between turns. I'm pretty sure the filter is over-rated for the tank ( 39 gal) and i'm running two cartridges inside just to keep things clean. I clean the entire assembly regularly so its never gotten excessively dirty. I read on the marineland FAQ's a brand new bio-wheel will spin faster than a used one, but i just have a feeling there's something up with mine. If you all want to see the flow of it just let me know and ill get a video up asap

It came with a one year warranty from ba's, but id like to see if theres something i could do before bringing it back.

Any help would be greatly appreciated


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## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

Mazaar said:


> Hey hows it going everyone,
> 
> I've been using these forums for information for my two tanks for sometime now, but i have a question that i do not think has been asked on here before.
> 
> ...


I have the same filter, I love the amount of flow it gives for my 37 gallon but I hate how sensitive it is in terms of making the biowheel spin and actually work. I noticed if you have the filter cartridge set too low it'll stop the bio wheel from spinning. If you raise the cartridge it'll let me flow through. You don't need two cartridges inside, that's a complete waste in my honest opinion. Take out one of the cartridges and more water will flow through, this is what's making the bio wheel spin so slow.


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## mistersprinkles (Nov 4, 2013)

They don't work very effectively. It's a very small surface area in extremely brief contact with the water. Wet/dry works. This implementation does not.

What I suggest you do is get some coarse foam (ie, aquaclear foam) and fill the entire filter with it. That will give you excellent biological and mechanical filtration. Don't throw the biowheel away right away. Leave it in for a month while the bacteria establishes on the foam. Or you can cut the biowheel up and mix it in with the foam. That'd work too.


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## Mazaar (Nov 5, 2013)

TorontoPlantMan said:


> I have the same filter, I love the amount of flow it gives for my 37 gallon but I hate how sensitive it is in terms of making the biowheel spin and actually work. I noticed if you have the filter cartridge set too low it'll stop the bio wheel from spinning. If you raise the cartridge it'll let me flow through. You don't need two cartridges inside, that's a complete waste in my honest opinion. Take out one of the cartridges and more water will flow through, this is what's making the bio wheel spin so slow.


Just tried both your ideas, flow out of the actual filter looked the same with one filter as opposed to two, i played with the height of the cartridges inside and it did help it spin a little faster, but its not a constant pace.

the only reason i run two cartridges at once is because when i bought it i only ran it with one and within two weeks it was totally black and the blue foam had almost went grey lol. Ive been running it with two filters in it for the past 2 months and have only needed to rinse them off every couple weeks.

How fast would you say your bio wheel spins? its almost like mine gets stuck every third or fourth blade, but i know for a fact its totally clean and free of obstacles.


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## videosilva (Oct 14, 2013)

*Marienland*

What happened to Marineland ? They made great products and were the main supplier of aquarium products years ago. I bought one of those filters a few months ago and what JUNK. In the SAME day I had to drive from Toronto to Scarborough 3 times to exchange the filter. Every time I set it up one of the impeller blades would break and stop working. That took at the most 30 seconds each time.

I was furious having to drive 3 times on a Saturday from Toronto to Scarborough to return the filters that each had the SAME defect. I now have Tetra filters and they work as they should. Impeller should NOT break the motor will wear out before the impeller.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

aquaclear all the way. Every single one I own I got used and they all work great, the odd one needs a jump start when the power goes out but I haven't cleaned them properly yet. I have 1 ac110, 1 ac70, 3 ac50, 2 ac30 and 3 or 4 ac20 and I love every one of them. They cost me basically nothing to maintain as the media lasts forever almost.


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## Y2KGT (Jul 20, 2009)

Mazaar said:


> Hey hows it going everyone,
> 
> I've been using these forums for information for my two tanks for sometime now, but i have a question that i do not think has been asked on here before.
> 
> ...


Its perfectly normal for the bio-wheel to slow and even stutter as it ages. As long as it doesn't completely stop there is nothing wrong with the filter.

Its also OK to use just the one cartridge and therefore more flow through the filter and the wheel will spin accordingly.

As for the folks bashing this filter or commenting on other filters please read the original post. If you can't answer the question please don't post on the thread. This is not a thread about which HOB filter is best.
--
Paul


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## Tbird (Oct 5, 2009)

Hi Mazaar,

Welcome to the Forum!! Anyway, I use a couple of the larger models of these filters and I find they work well. What I have done in the past with the smaller ones, is buy the aquaclear bio media in a bag and stuff it in the filter. This gives me some additional bio requirements. Then with the plastic foam inserts, I cut off the foam itself and clean up the plastic part as best as I can. I then buy the rolls of foam from big als and cut them to the size of this plastic piece. I then use elastics to attach to that plastic piece and now you have an easily replaceable mechanical filter. 

Hope this helps.

Later
Wil


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

While I don't own one nor have I ever, it would seem that if the wheel is slowing, and not because the water flow is lessened because of clogging filters, perhaps the wheel should be removed and the axles and pockets they run in should be cleaned.


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## bobbyjoe (Jan 30, 2013)

I've got a small Penguin 100 on a 10 gallon, when I was cycling the tank (fishless/ammonia method) the Biowheel was spinning at regular speed, as time went on, it slowed down, thats perfectly normal. I also added about 15 Biomax rings (mesh nylon bag) in the filter, after the insert. After the cycle process was complete the media was able to handle 5ppm of ammonia/day.

Just recently I had 18 Yellow labs in there ranging between 1.75-2 inches in length, never had any problems with water condition but I added another Penguin Mini (no Biowheel) to help out with mechanical, tank had no gravel/substrate and the bottom was free of debris. (both filters did an excellent job)

As for inserts, I never bought any (I used 2 old ones that came with the filters) I'm using filter floss, elastic bands (5 each insert) and the plastic bracket from the insert. As for "when I replace the floss", it varies, every 3-4 weeks or whenever it's necessary, it's takes me 5 minutes to replace the insert with filter floss/elastic bands and the cost is next to nothing, if you like you can do it weekly, changing mechanical filtration won't "screw up" your biological filtration.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=80887


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## videosilva (Oct 14, 2013)

*Filter*



Y2KGT said:


> Its perfectly normal for the bio-wheel to slow and even stutter as it ages. As long as it doesn't completely stop there is nothing wrong with the filter.
> 
> Its also OK to use just the one cartridge and therefore more flow through the filter and the wheel will spin accordingly.
> 
> ...


 You can read the thread as you wish, BUT i stated what happened to me with 3 different filters as FACT ! Let the original poster make their own INFORMED decision.

Thank you
Paul


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## charlie1 (Dec 1, 2011)

As was posted before it`s completely normal for the bio wheel to slow down , at times even to a crawl, the bio wheel is very effective.
I say this from using them in the past before I switched to planted tanks.
All you need to keep in mind is to never attempt to clean the bio wheel period.
Regards
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...guin-bio-wheel-filter-problem-question-27952/


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