Marineland Bio-Wheel Penguin Aquarium Power Filter

It’s a filter and it seems to be doing its job. However unlike my older version it doesn’t seem to draw as much water. Lower powered pump perhaps? Bio-Wheels are junk. Brand new setup and they only turn every so often. Yes I have the proper water level and have made various attempts to fix the issue. The “plastic bearing” they rest in has to be one of the dumbest designs I’ve seen. Also The quality of the wheels themselves are pretty bad too. They are nowhere near being concentric. You can see how much they wobble when they do turn. Which is likely why they get stuck. Overall, yes it does it’s job, but I know Marineland can do much better than this….

I have used Penguin HOB filters for more than 30 years both the 350 and the 200. This is my first experience with a 150 but it is the same reliable principle as the 200 and the 350. They are a real work horse and run for years without issues. Though outdated by today's technology they still do a great job at an amazing price. The new Penguin Pro 175 would have cost $30 more. Though I prefer the bottom to top water flow as in the Tidal 35 or the Fluval 20, the price point for the Tidal is $40 and the Fluval 20 at $30, so I will deal with the sideways waterflow of the Penguin 150 for $7.87. :-)

Whelp. I really wanted these to work. I added them to a 75-gallon cichlid tank as additional filtration. BOTH failed within a couple of days. They just shut down. Thankfully I still had the canister filter or I might have lost all of my fish! Unplugged and replugged and one came back on but quit again after less than an hour. I’m super bummed. I have another on a 29-gallon tank that sounds like an airplane getting ready to take off so I doubt it will last much longer either. I’ll be replacing it ASAP. Thankful for Chewy’s excellence in customer service though!

I bought this filter because it was priced pretty low the filter itself works well in a 55 gallon tank but if you have many fish ide buy 2 filters. After about 6 to 12 months the filters start to become noisy and doesn’t sound nice especially if your tank is in the living room. You get what you pay for :)

So I have had this filter on my 20 gallon high for 3 weeks, it has done a great job filtering the water and keeping it clear besides the immense tannins that are naturally seeping from my driftwood and more so my soil, I even got a separate UV light pump separate from the filter to help with any possible algae in the water flow that could occur as I figure out my lighting strength. So far so good. There's tons of brown slime all over the filter media, so it doing a good job getting what it can from the intense load as i did water changes for 3 days. But!! This darn wheel, I had to fidget with it and the filter media to get it to roll multiple times, it finally was constant for 20 days. I noticed So I have had this filter on my 20 gallon high for 3 weeks, it has done a great job filtering the water and keeping it clear besides the immense tannins that are naturally seeping from my driftwood and more so my soil, I even got a separate UV light pump separate from the filter to help with any possible algae in the water flow that could occur as I figure out my lighting strength. So far so good. There's tons of brown slime all over the filter media, so it doing a good job getting what it can from the intense load as i did water changes for 3 days. But!! This darn wheel, I had to fidget with it and the filter media to get it to roll multiple times, it finally was constant for 20 days. I noticed alot of slime slower water flow, so I wiped out everything in tank water. Started up, wheels moving, then I realize I had to change one of the pads, once I did the wheel stopped moving. NO there was nothing blocking the: turbine, the intake tubing, the intake filter grates. The bio-wheel bearings or arms. Filter media was not clogged. And the water level was literally a little over the the outflow lip, meaning plenty ;) So my cycle was starting to work in those 20 days, then got interrupted from the wheel not moving for 2 days (meaning the amount of surface area that the bacteria was active with water flow was much smaller than normal due to the wheel not rotating) so my ammonia spiked and nitrites started to turn into nitrates but then ammonia stopped getting eaten. Okay, so I poke at things and make it work and did something that did! Because I really do like this filter It does a good job, especially with a 20g/30g capacity ratio. So I pulled apart the bio-wheel, The frames a little snug, but nothing became damaged, and had a solid pleated sheet, so I placed it inside the second media slot, with the filter/charcoal media in front and after 8 hours I did a chem test and could see the two bacterias where cycling!!! So no, I don't recommend This product to anyone because I know no one would likely be like me to take apart the wheel and figure out a way to make it work. Lol but I do like the filtration power ;) … more

I bought one of these about two months ago. and it stopped working after a little bit, but i assumed it was just a fluke and decided to get another because i like the water flow and it does a great job. but after i received my second one, it stopped working after three days. i’m beyond frustrated and upset that i wasted money on these:(

I bought it a couple days ago and it stopped working today the wheels didn’t even spin on then and I don’t en see a way to contact support on here makes me so mad I should have looked at the reviews first but I didn’t so now I’m stuck buying a new one

if you are planning on using this product for a tank that you don't plan on filing till the top, the motor is unable to pull water. I used this on my turtle tank. Even with a half tank (water over the midsection of the pump tubing) it just would not pull the water into the filter. Very disappointed with the product. I am requesting a refund.

I've only used it a few days now, but I'm very glad I purchased it off chewy....it helped clear my tank just overnite...my oscar seems happier.

I have 3 of these, 2 I purchased from Chewy when they were on sale after getting my first. Love them. One is on my fancy goldfish tank, one is on my angelfish tank, and the 3rd is on our African cichlids tank. Hands down my favorite filter. My first ones almost a year old and have had zero issues with it. My 2 new ones are up and running perfectly. Easy to maintain, quiet, and I never have a hard time finding replacement filters or anything.