I actually found an article by some guy who did tests and he found the sponge filters to be more effective than biowheeels. I'll try and dig it up...
Found it:
<a href="http
/www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2006/...eally-work.html" target="_blank">http/www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2006/...eally-work.html</a>
That being said...both my tanks have biowheels.
That link (working link is
here ) is fairly good in that the author clearly states there is no science to their findings, just anecdotal experience of putting some fish food into similar sized and similar stocked tanks and watching the results with far from accurate home test kits (can anyone see the potential for the results to be somewhat meaningless?
).
However, when the author mentions this point I think they lose all credibility:
Another important aspect of aerobic filtration is that the faster and more ammonia and nitrites your aquarium bio filter processes the more nitrates your aquarium will have in the end. This is especially noteworthy for marine aquariums
So, the faster my filter gets rid of ammonia and nitrite the sooner I have nitrate. Somehow this is a
bad thing? Why? Nitrates are nowhere near as toxic to fish and inverts (including SPs corals and anemones) as ammonia and nitrite, yet a filter that processes ammonia and nitrite quicker is not so great? So I should have a filter which converts ammonia and nitrite slower allowing a slower nitrate build up and to also have ammonia and nitrite in the water for longer.
No, I don't think so. A cycled filter is in equilibrium with the production of ammonia meaning it is processed at the same speed as the fish produce it. Having a filter which is slower at processing it will mean an ammonia build up, and as we all know from the first bit time we looked at the nitrogen cycle, ammonia=bad.
Whilst trying to test one fishkeeping myth, this person has fallen straight into a far worse one.
