Bio Wheel Issue On Magnum 350 Canister From Marineland.

[pvandatta]

I recently purchased a magnum 350 canister filter with bio wheels. Once I set up the filter and turned everything on I noticed that my bio wheels where not spinning and lacking water output. I adjusted the spray bar on each bio wheel and the bio wheels now spin, however; I still have slow water output from the wheels. Is this normal? I guess I just expected more water flow from the bio wheels. Any help or suggestions would be great.

Thanks

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum PVandatta.
The wheels on one of those Marineland filters simply provide a place that stays moist and where bacteria can grow freely. They do not improve water flow,to some extent they even restrict it. The impeller in the filter provides any flow that you might get and some of the power of that flow is used to turn the wheel. I run a HOT Magnum 250 as a spare filter on one of my tanks, just in case I have a filter failure elsewhere. Flow is not especially high in the 250 and I doubt it would be noticeably more in the 350. Any consistent flow that is moving water across your wheel and other media will do the job of a biological filter. If you want good mechanical filtration, you will also need a filter with high enough flows to do several water changes each hour. Typical values that people look for are in the 5 to 10 times per hour range.