Is It Worth It To Upgrade The Filter To A Biowheel In My 29 Gallon...

[kelp]

The filter I have now came with the 29 gallon aquarium from Walmart. It's part of the Regent series. I hear that there are Penguin 170 replacement parts for my filter that will allow it to have a biowheel. I found some parts that will let me have a biowheel, but it costs $16.46 shipped. I can get the Penguin Bio-wheel 350 for $21 shipped, so should I go ahead and make that purchase, or is it overkill for my aquarium? Now, that I typed this all out, I'm feeling that I should definitely get the Penguin 350...

 

[kelp]

I'm also thinking that I could buy $20 worth of live plants with that cash for the filter. My filter's working fine, but I'm intrigued with hardware and gadgets. I like everything to work as efficiently as possible.

 

[rockerBOO]

Well it has a 170 filter, which should be 170g/h. Which is fine for your tank. Though a little on the lower side of my range (5-7g/h on power filters) though this does go down when it gets cloged. I think on these filters there is a overflow on them. Which is to the right of the normal flow. If this is going, your filter media is cloged and should be replaced or cleaned.

Also what should be noted is that the bio-wheel is great unless you add in a co2 system for your live plants. Just to keep in mind as it causes problems with keeping the co2 in the water.

All in all you should be fine with a 170, but going up to a 330 would be a little overkill (11.3 g/h). But overkill is not a bad thing. I have a 330 on my 20g and it does a nice job. Though hurts my co2 a bunch.