Bio-wheel is not spinning!!!

meanjean

Medium Fish
May 10, 2005
97
0
0
Kentucky
#1
Again, my biowheel is not spinning! Not even slowly. Not even at all. When I give it a little tap, it goes right back to the spot I budged it from. I even tried rinsing it out in siphoned water, but to no avail.

What do I need to do?
 

OCCFan023

Superstar Fish
Jul 29, 2004
1,817
5
0
35
New Jersey
#3
How long has it been running, the biowheel could have become clogged of broken and they do make replacements. Can you see if water is hitting the wheel at a constant steady rate that would make it flow?

I had a biowheel and it stopped running so I just took it off.
 

meanjean

Medium Fish
May 10, 2005
97
0
0
Kentucky
#5
It was running very slow on Friday, so I took the filter out over the weekend thinking that might help. When the filter was in, it must have been a little clogged since water was cascading out where the spigot is that sucks the water back in.

The water is flowing under and through the wheel right now—maybe it’s not strong enough to push the wheel?

I did a quick gravel vacuum after I posted, and when I added water back to the tank I added some to the filter area. The wheel turned for like ten seconds, then stopped again.
 

#6
Check your filter's syphon tube, and the impeller. I'll warn you that checking the impeller isn't hard, but can be pain.
Make sure that there is no debris around the impeller, and that the syphon tube is relatively clean.
If the tube gets too much build up around the inside the amount of water that it sucks up is reduced. Biowheels need a certain amount of water in order to spin.
 

f8fan

MFT Staff
Nov 19, 2004
1,765
8
38
Bangor, Maine
#8
Hi meanjean, any pet store should have the replacement biowheels as well as the little blue thingies that are on the arm that holds the biowheel in place.

The reason I mention the little blue thingies is because once my biowheel stopped, I tried everything to get it going again and guess what, one of those little blue thingies was missing!

Other things to look for (and have already been mentioned but these have happened to me personally and might help...)

The impeller. Take apart your whole get up, take out the impeller, and rinse it under hot water to dissolve the crud. THEN, take some tweezers and pull hair outta the thing...I have two cats and long hair myself, and you wouldn't believe what gets collected in there....this stops up my biowheel all the time. Now I pluck the hair out of it at least monthly.

Move around the filter cartridge. Sometimes mine is very sensitive to the location of the cartridge and just a move or wiggle will get the flow going again.

Have you rinsed the bracket that the biowheel sits on?

Good luck.
 

meanjean

Medium Fish
May 10, 2005
97
0
0
Kentucky
#9
I took apart the whole suction tube, got a brush and scrubbed the thing out, took apart all the little pieces in the bottom, there was a little crud, but not much. I used a little brush to anything that might be on the spinners of the wheel, but still didn't help.

I looked at the local store I usually get my fish and they didn't have the wheel by itself.

Its been sitting in one spot so long the top of the wheel is now dry with white crust on it. I'm going to take it out and let it soak in some water to maybe help hydrate it and even it out. There was just a little brown gunk on the bottom of the wheel--the part that was touching the water
.