# Bio-wheel won't spin



## Aquatic Delight (Mar 2, 2012)

have you taken the wheel out, and put it back in? i had that problem when i first started mine up. took a couple attempts but i got it working right, and hasn't stopped in almost 2 months now


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## Woody0229 (May 19, 2011)

Leave it be. When it stops spinning it means that there is a lot of bacteria built up. Your doing just fine!


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## dfish2077 (Oct 2, 2012)

ive had my wheel not spin. i simply took out the prop that drives the water through the filter ive found it clogged witth debris your wheel should spin after that


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## Aquatic Delight (Mar 2, 2012)

Woody0229 said:


> Leave it be. When it stops spinning it means that there is a lot of bacteria built up. Your doing just fine!



if you do that you aren't allowing all the bacteria to touch the water and are limiting the capacity to which the bacteria can work


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## AquariumNoob (Aug 18, 2010)

Had the same problem. Switched filter cartridges and both of my penguins spun great...... for about a week. Now they stopped spinning, again -.-
I Have em in a shrimp tank along with a sponge filter so im not too worried about filtration. Just going to let it be.. Might be a clogged filter if you havent changed it or your prop has dirt and gunk and stuff preventing it from producing enough flow.


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## dhgyello04 (Jul 11, 2008)

Mine usually stops spinning when either my water level is to low or when my in take sponge is clogged up.check those k.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

It might also be a good time to check the little notches where the hweel axle sets. They can get build up in them which makes the wheel stick. They were one of the pains with Emperor filters which drove me away from them.


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## WestHaven (Jun 30, 2012)

I worked on it for an hour last night and I got the bio-wheel working again. I had to clean the filter media and change out some of it.


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## WestHaven (Jun 30, 2012)

The wheel stopped spinning again. Should I use less filter media so it gets better water flow?


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## lipadj46 (Apr 6, 2011)

penguins are horribly designed filters. If you must have a bio wheel get an emperor.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

Personally I wouldn't worry about it. The bulk of the biofiltration is going on in the tank not on your little bio-wheel.


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## pete159 (Aug 10, 2007)

lipadj46 said:


> penguins are horribly designed filters. If you must have a bio wheel get an emperor.


 
yes the emperor 280 is a great filter and the wheels never ever stop turning even if you dont clean the filter very often'


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## WestHaven (Jun 30, 2012)

Ok. Maybe I'll have to pickup a second filter like an Emperor..


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## WestHaven (Jun 30, 2012)

I figured out what the problem was. My filter didn't have enough INTAKE flow. I opened up the mid-water intake and immediately the wheel starting spinning again.


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## Sake (Mar 30, 2012)

WestHaven said:


> I figured out what the problem was. My filter didn't have enough INTAKE flow. I opened up the mid-water intake and immediately the wheel starting spinning again.



I had this same problem, it was a wad of crap stuck in the tube causing reduced flow. Pull off the bottom section and see if it's clogged if you don't want to have to use the mid water intake.


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