Biowheel

Question
Hey Nick,
You were so incredibly helpful with the last question I had, I'm going to ask you another one.  You guys are all great on here.  Ok, I'm going to do another water change in the next day or two and I try to keep my water changes small and frequent but now I'm confused a bit.  
I've read that if you have lots of live rock you don't need frequent water changes....if it's a reef setup.  Is live rock just as beneficial to a fish only setup or am I wasting my 10.99lb for my rock?
Second, I have a Marineland Biowheel powerfilter penguin 200 with a separate protein skimmer for my 29G tank in which my LFS says the biowheel should not be changed only the filters.  He says the wheel contains the needed bacteria.  Is that correct?  Can I change my filters in the back with no problems?  They are just carbon filters and the package comes with one and they recommend two (which I have) and I have just been pulling one out a month and replacing it, leaving the oldest one in for the bacteria.  Are they garbage?  Like he said?  He has never steered me wrong but this concerns me.
And if what he says is true...could I rinse out my wheel with the tank water (if water lvls are good) or should I rinse it with RO water, if at all?  Just when I think we have a handle on everything, there is something more.  I do have to add though, I originally had a 2 in one thing that I quickly disliked.  I like everything to do it's own thing so that I can find the problem faster.  When I had the 2 in one filter/skimmer I knew that the filter held all of the good bacteria so that is the reason for my newbish question.  Thanks in advance.
Laurie

Answer
Hello again!

Live is THE most important thing you will ever buy for a saltwater tank. 10.99/lb is quite high I admit, but look around. Most pet stores will sell it for $7/lb, and you can buy dead rock (lower quality live rock) for $1/lb.

Ideally, you want at least 1lb per gallon. So 29 or 30 pounds would be great. But make sure you are fully curing your live rock before adding it to an already existing tank. For more info join the forum in my signature and post in the saltwater section.

Yes, you pet store is correct on that. Wash it out when it gets really dirty. Wash it in tank water. By wash, I mean just dip it in a few times and put it back in the filter. No scrubbing or anything.
However with live rock you can ditch the filter altogether.

With no live rock you should be doing at least 10% water changes twice a week, sometimes more depending on your stocking levels. With 1lb/gallon you can do 10% once a week.

-Nick