Marineland Bio-Wheel

[PSeev]

I have a 55 gallon tank with a Marineland Bio-wheel 350. The tank has cycled after a green water algae bloom. The tank is completely clear and the readings as of today 7/7/11 are ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates .25ppm. In addition to the cartridges, I added pro filter media pads to the tank. That was the best advice ever, on removing the algae. We kept the light off and the algae was gone in 1 week. My question is, how often should you change the cartridges? There are so many conflicting reports and I would really appreciate advice from someone who changes them on a regular basis. Thanks for any advice.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I have two Penguin 200s, about two months old. I haven't changed a cartridge yet.

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Just to ask, is that 25ppm or 0.25 ppm? How did you get a reading of .25ppm when most of the test kits start at 5ppm?

 

[This Old Spouse]

I don't change cartridges until they start falling apart, and then only one at a time to reestablish the new ones. I'm slowly switching over to ceramic noodles and sponges.

And I'll bet you're right, Fishy, on the .25 ppm. It's probably 25 ppm, so the readings are great.

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Yeh, I wasn't saying they were bad, just confirming . My tap water has 20-30 ppm of nitrates so I'm not fussed about having 40-60 ppm in my water lol

 

[PSeev]

To clarify, I made a mistake, the nitrates were/are 5.0 ppm. Today, I did a 20% water change and rinsed the cartridges in old, yet to be discarded tank water. Thanks again for the insight and recommendations.