Hi i just recetly got into having a fish tank and just baught a penguin 200 biowheel filter i had a couple questions, my first is how often should i clean the blue filter with the charcoal and replace it with new ones and how often should i clean the biowheel. also is this okay to do when i do a water change or should they be done sepert. I have heard that you can make your own filters for this pump im not sure how and cant seem to find it threw google, one site said about removing the blue fiber and charcoal and then replacing with cheaper filter foam from wal-mart and hold with elastic bands, but i was curious about the charcoal if it was removed (notsure how to remove it) how could it be replaced with new charcoal. If someone could help me with this it would be great. o my tank setup is a 20g tank with 6 zebra danios 4 yellow danios 2 cory cats and 2 angels. hope this pump is okay i just orderd it online. thanks again
Penguin200b Filters
- Thread starter hendo
- Start date
CKutz
Fishaholic
hi, welcome to the forum
could you tell us the dimensions of your tank?
about your filter...the filter company is hoping to make loads of money off you by telling you that you need to replace the filter monthly. i just looked up your filter..on amazon the catridges are $9.60..consider that a filter is made of that blue sponge thing, and some small bits of carbon, and plastic..they are making a lot off profit.
so here's what you want to do. get a scissors, poke it through the blue scratchy filter pad right beside where it is fastened to the plastic casing. you're going to cut it free of the plastic casing..becareful when you do this there is quite a load of black carbon bits in there that could make a real pain in the.. mess to clean up off your floor. cut the sponge off. throw away the plastic casing and the carbon bits. stick the blue sponge back in your filter..try and stand it up or something so that most the water going through the filter hits it (the same position it would be in if it still had the plastic casing attatched).
This is all you need. there is really no use for carbon on a regular basis, only to remove medications from the water, or if your tap water has high levels of metals in it (i believe it removes the metals such as copper). in fact, if you leave it in too long it can release any toxins it has soaked up, which will be very toxic to your fish.
someone else will hopefully comment on alternative filter media (that's fish people lingo for that blue sponge thing) options because i'm not sure if you can just stick things like ceramic balls or w/e in there which some other types of filters use.
if you want, when you go to a petstore you can look for a similar filter sponge material. mine has a roll of this white scratchy stuff, it's a pretty big roll i think it's intended for ponds or something..with this you can get the whole roll, although you won't need most of it. take it home and cut it into pieces that will fit in your filter. don't clog it up to much so that water doesn't flow through well, but you can stick some in there if you want.
as far as replacing any of this. never. unless it falls apart or something, don't ever replace it. when you do a water change you can rinse the blue pad in OLD tank water to get rid of any big debry, but do not ring it out or anything like like that...some of the scum looking stuff on there is the good bacteria that digests your fishes waste. if you use tap water it will kill the good bacteria.
are you familiar with the cycling process? how long has your tank been running?
i'm sorry if any of this seems over simplified or if you know most of this an i insult your intelligence, it's hard to tell how much a person knows when they first join the forum.
oh also, are you saying you already have a filter on the tank, and you just bought a new one? if this is the case you will want to take the sponge out of the old filter and put it in the new filter, this will transfer that good bacteria i mentioned to the new filter.
could you tell us the dimensions of your tank?
about your filter...the filter company is hoping to make loads of money off you by telling you that you need to replace the filter monthly. i just looked up your filter..on amazon the catridges are $9.60..consider that a filter is made of that blue sponge thing, and some small bits of carbon, and plastic..they are making a lot off profit.
so here's what you want to do. get a scissors, poke it through the blue scratchy filter pad right beside where it is fastened to the plastic casing. you're going to cut it free of the plastic casing..becareful when you do this there is quite a load of black carbon bits in there that could make a real pain in the.. mess to clean up off your floor. cut the sponge off. throw away the plastic casing and the carbon bits. stick the blue sponge back in your filter..try and stand it up or something so that most the water going through the filter hits it (the same position it would be in if it still had the plastic casing attatched).
This is all you need. there is really no use for carbon on a regular basis, only to remove medications from the water, or if your tap water has high levels of metals in it (i believe it removes the metals such as copper). in fact, if you leave it in too long it can release any toxins it has soaked up, which will be very toxic to your fish.
someone else will hopefully comment on alternative filter media (that's fish people lingo for that blue sponge thing) options because i'm not sure if you can just stick things like ceramic balls or w/e in there which some other types of filters use.
if you want, when you go to a petstore you can look for a similar filter sponge material. mine has a roll of this white scratchy stuff, it's a pretty big roll i think it's intended for ponds or something..with this you can get the whole roll, although you won't need most of it. take it home and cut it into pieces that will fit in your filter. don't clog it up to much so that water doesn't flow through well, but you can stick some in there if you want.
as far as replacing any of this. never. unless it falls apart or something, don't ever replace it. when you do a water change you can rinse the blue pad in OLD tank water to get rid of any big debry, but do not ring it out or anything like like that...some of the scum looking stuff on there is the good bacteria that digests your fishes waste. if you use tap water it will kill the good bacteria.
are you familiar with the cycling process? how long has your tank been running?
i'm sorry if any of this seems over simplified or if you know most of this an i insult your intelligence, it's hard to tell how much a person knows when they first join the forum.
oh also, are you saying you already have a filter on the tank, and you just bought a new one? if this is the case you will want to take the sponge out of the old filter and put it in the new filter, this will transfer that good bacteria i mentioned to the new filter.
Hi sorry about the last post new to this forum stuff. the tank dimenssions are 24 1/4 longx12 1/2 widex16 1/4 high. no worries about the questions i am new to this but have done much reasearch about it and have had a small 10g before. My tank has been cycling for a week i took a water sample into my local store and they said it should be fine i currently only have the danios yet i want to waint for about a month before i put the angels in. the website i found for makin your own suggested using this material (100% polyester fiber matting no addv no perfumes etc) i dont think my tap water has much metal in it lots of chlorine thou but tapwater conditioner fixes that well. i have read that a 10% water change every week is a good practice aswell is this tru also. what is your feelings on those fish in a 20g tank i am a little worried it may be 2 crowded for the angels. thanks again for all your help reallly appreciate this. oo and i also just baught a 150w heater will this be okay i had a old 25w from my 10g but its gota be maxed out to keep the temp at 72. thanks so much.
the heater got is a Aquarium Pharmaceuticals RENA Cal Top Light 150Watt i hope that it will be okay i orderd it with the pump. i know its a little more then what i need but i baught this stuff to hopefully eventually use on a 30-50g tank.
CKutz
Fishaholic
no problem, i had a tough time figuring this site out also at first.
it would be wise to let it keep running for about a month like you said, unless you used an old filter pad it is pretty unlikely that it is really cycled already.
you'll probably want to keep your tank a little warmer than 72 if that's what you're keeping it at. i think it might be better at like 76. that heater should be fine for your tank.
you'll want to get a few more corys, 3 or 4 more cory's. they are schooling fish actually. unfortunately i believe a height of 18" is recommended for angels. this is because once they get full grown their fins get pretty long, so for them to have room to swim around a bit this height is recommend. if you get the angels when they are small and if you are really going to get a 30-50 gallon tank (sometime within the next several months i would say) you could probably transfer the angels to this. although i have a 30 gallon and passed getting angels for it cause of it's height. so make sure to get a tall one. then again they might not survive that long with those danios. danios are very active fish, they might not be terrible fin nippers, but with the very slow moving angels it might be too much. i've also heard of people having perfectly peaceful danios, and also heard of vicious ones that terrorized all their fish to death, its probably just not worth it to try the angels in there. I would probably suggest a gourami of some sort instead, do some research on them. you can always get angels once you get a bigger tank.
yes a 10-20% waterchange is required every week. this is because of the fish waste being broken down from ammonia, to nitrite, to nitrate. nothing breaks down the nitrate so it continues to build up.
if you look into the species of dwarf/pygmy cories you could easily have 6 or 8 of them. there's some examples in this question i posted http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=280608
i guess getting back to your original question (i'm sorry i didn't even realize this was the diy section, someone else might comment eventually), i believe i read once that you can use the polyester stuff used to fill pillows. i believe this might be the same thing you are talking about. the stuff i mentioned seeing at my petstore was not the expensive if you would be interested in that. hmm..i just did some searching, i didn't think of this but you could take your sponge and just cut it open and remove the carbon, just dump it into a trash can and try and get all the little bits out. then you'll have that plastic part still to keep your filter sponge in place. if you really want to you can cut this off, and by the polyester stuff and strap it onto the plastic frame with rubberbands...i haven't done this, and personally i'd be a little skeptical of keeping the rubberbands in the water, maybe a plastic twisty, or if you undo a paper clip and poke it through or something (unless paper clips rust?).
also you asked about washing the biowheel. washing your filter pad and biowheel should be done about once a month. when you do a waterchange and you have a bucket of old tank water just lightly rinse them in the old water in order to get any of the large debry off them.
check out the "new to the hobby" section. you will probably find some useful posts there about your regular tank maintenance.
it would be wise to let it keep running for about a month like you said, unless you used an old filter pad it is pretty unlikely that it is really cycled already.
you'll probably want to keep your tank a little warmer than 72 if that's what you're keeping it at. i think it might be better at like 76. that heater should be fine for your tank.
you'll want to get a few more corys, 3 or 4 more cory's. they are schooling fish actually. unfortunately i believe a height of 18" is recommended for angels. this is because once they get full grown their fins get pretty long, so for them to have room to swim around a bit this height is recommend. if you get the angels when they are small and if you are really going to get a 30-50 gallon tank (sometime within the next several months i would say) you could probably transfer the angels to this. although i have a 30 gallon and passed getting angels for it cause of it's height. so make sure to get a tall one. then again they might not survive that long with those danios. danios are very active fish, they might not be terrible fin nippers, but with the very slow moving angels it might be too much. i've also heard of people having perfectly peaceful danios, and also heard of vicious ones that terrorized all their fish to death, its probably just not worth it to try the angels in there. I would probably suggest a gourami of some sort instead, do some research on them. you can always get angels once you get a bigger tank.
yes a 10-20% waterchange is required every week. this is because of the fish waste being broken down from ammonia, to nitrite, to nitrate. nothing breaks down the nitrate so it continues to build up.
if you look into the species of dwarf/pygmy cories you could easily have 6 or 8 of them. there's some examples in this question i posted http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=280608 i guess getting back to your original question (i'm sorry i didn't even realize this was the diy section, someone else might comment eventually), i believe i read once that you can use the polyester stuff used to fill pillows. i believe this might be the same thing you are talking about. the stuff i mentioned seeing at my petstore was not the expensive if you would be interested in that. hmm..i just did some searching, i didn't think of this but you could take your sponge and just cut it open and remove the carbon, just dump it into a trash can and try and get all the little bits out. then you'll have that plastic part still to keep your filter sponge in place. if you really want to you can cut this off, and by the polyester stuff and strap it onto the plastic frame with rubberbands...i haven't done this, and personally i'd be a little skeptical of keeping the rubberbands in the water, maybe a plastic twisty, or if you undo a paper clip and poke it through or something (unless paper clips rust?).
also you asked about washing the biowheel. washing your filter pad and biowheel should be done about once a month. when you do a waterchange and you have a bucket of old tank water just lightly rinse them in the old water in order to get any of the large debry off them.
check out the "new to the hobby" section. you will probably find some useful posts there about your regular tank maintenance.
R0ADK1ll88
New Member
The information I have read says that the biowheel should never be washed or repalced unless it is damaged. The wheel shouldn't be able to catch any large debris since the water that comes in contact with the wheel is already filtered. I have been running my 55 for about 6 months and have never cleaned the wheel.
I check the filters in the unit every other week and rinse as needed. If you are using the carbon in the filters I believe you need to replace at least monthly to prevent the carbon from leeching its contents back into the water. I also just read about the DIY filters for the penguins and the background seems good. The carbon isn't really necessary and since they don't sell them without the carbon I will be making my own in the very near future using the rubberband method you were talking about.
wow guys thanks to everyone so much for all the help, Ckutz thanks alot you have really helped me figure this all out, i Just recieved my pump and heater today they are amazing , got this tank about a week ago from a friend and just cant stop buying stuff i love the hobby of it. I agree about the angels and feel the same way, my problem is im trying to convince the girlfriend to feel the sameway but she has her heart set on it. hopefully i can talk her out of it and waint till we get a bigger tank. Ckutz if you wouldnt mind i was wondering if you had an email or messenger account you have been a very big help and seem like a very noligible person , was hoping to maybe add you to talk for advice in the future. thanks again..
CKutz
Fishaholic
roadkill is right, you probably barely ever need to wash that biowheel. i think some debris can still get through the filter, like smaller particles..who knows, anything is possible. and i think that is what tends to build up on the biowheel. but really it's so little that it shouldn't cause any problems.
aw haha, my girlfriend loves angels also (heck so do i). we were both pretty bummed when we found out the 30 gal i got i was too short.
there are lots of interesting fish out there though, you just have to look a bit.
actually i guess i should mention that, from what i've read, there is a species of angelfish that is ok in that size tank..
Pterophyllum leopoldi. they don't get as big as the other species, however they can be pretty difficult and pricey to find.
my lfs had them, but for $25 when a regular angel was like $5 or something.
maybe you can tell her if she can wait you'll get the bigger size tank and you can get more angels! haha i dunno good luck with that.
just remember to leave that filter pad with the good bacteria in there, even if you make your own pad and replace the blue one, leave the blue one in for a few days so the bacteria can develop on the new pad.
aw haha, my girlfriend loves angels also (heck so do i). we were both pretty bummed when we found out the 30 gal i got i was too short.
there are lots of interesting fish out there though, you just have to look a bit.
actually i guess i should mention that, from what i've read, there is a species of angelfish that is ok in that size tank..
Pterophyllum leopoldi. they don't get as big as the other species, however they can be pretty difficult and pricey to find.
my lfs had them, but for $25 when a regular angel was like $5 or something.
maybe you can tell her if she can wait you'll get the bigger size tank and you can get more angels! haha i dunno good luck with that.
just remember to leave that filter pad with the good bacteria in there, even if you make your own pad and replace the blue one, leave the blue one in for a few days so the bacteria can develop on the new pad.
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