In article <72068@cup.portal.com> PLai@cup.portal.com (Patrick L Faith) writes:
>Review: Second Nature WDF 3000 Wet/Dry Power Filter
>
>Pluses: this has to better than Marinelands powerwheel.
>Minuses: what doesn't work better than the powerwheel.
I would like to hear more about the difficulties you've had with the bio-
wheel gadget (powerwheel?). So far, I am a satisfied user.
I have had a 10g SW tank set up as a hospital for over a year. I chose the
biowheel because I wanted an easily maintainable filter with no substrate.
The intended use of the tank was to rest and medicate, and I believe in
prompt removal of medication at the end of the dose period. Also, the tank
usually has some level of copper in it.
The filter normally runs with the blue filter pad, but I frequently replace
this with a charcoal bag when I need to extract medication. Debris buildup
is obvious and easily removed due to no substrate.
For some unknown reason, the wheel was very slow to cycle. But once established,that thing really sucked up ammonia and nitrite. The cycling levels fell to
zero faster than any tank I've started. I've had no measureable levels since,
even when the tank was temporarily overpopulated. Post-medication spikes
have been few, low-amplitude, and brief, but I am careful about not leaving
the stuff in the water.
I maintain an extra wheel and a bag of biochem beads in my main tank to move
to the penguin in case I ever destroyed the filter bacteria through medication.
But, I have never had to use them.
This silly-looking little gadget (110 size) is my *only* biological filter,
and I have never had the wheel become clogged or stop rotating or even slow
down. You do have to be careful that no interference occurs from charcoal
bags, drawstrings, etc. It has completely met my objectives for this
