Well i was looking around at which tank to get.. and within the price range i was looking at (newbie) i was plumping for the Juwel Rio 125 cheapest pick-upable price or delivered was about £200-210 (inc cabitnet). I went to a place in dorset, just to have a look round (as i seem to be doing all the time) to see what they had, and they were selling the Juwel Rio 180 for £189 including the cabinet.. so put it in the car..

Oh well, so its a little bigger than i expected to buy, but most of you said the bigger the better anyway (i know this is not big for most of you ..

so.. im preparing for the fishless cycle, which seems to be the best way for me.. and i have been looking in to the filters that the Compact H uses (i know this is not your favourite, but its what i have to work with, and i find them more convenient than the Fluval internal ones.) "Now theres a lot of sponges", was the first thing that i thought.. From what i understand, its better to clean the sponge in used water than it is ro replace it.. In my instructions at home..

so.. the question is.. are the white and the black ones the only ones you replace... and you clean the others and re-use them.

Also, by the looks of other posts, i should just remove the black one after a few weeks. and only use one when removing mediaction..

If you have one less in the stack, ie. you removed the black one, do you just push the others further down..

1. White Pre-Filter Pad.

We recommend this pad be changed on a weekly basis. If you have large fish, then this may require changing slightly more frequently.

2. Black Carbon Sponge.

This part of the filter provides us with our chemical filtration removing impurities from the water and leaving that crystal clear effect. Activated carbon has a relatively short life because of the job that it does and after four - six weeks it needs to be replaced.

Please note when using any chemical treatments in the tank you will need to remove this sponge for the treatment period.

3. Green Nitrate sponge

change or replace.. cant remember how often..


4. Upper Blue Sponges Coarse.

The top sponge should be cleaned or at six weeks when you change the carbon sponge.

The bottom sponge (if existing) repeat the above program at twelve weeks.

5. Lower Blue Sponge Fine.

The top sponge should be cleaned at six month.

This should then be repeated at twelve month for the bottom sponge.

I'd suggest you take out the black filter (activated carbon) and replace it with more foam. Only ever use it if you want to remove medications or whatever.
The pre-filter thingy probably works to remove the really big bits of gunk, and holds fewer bacteria (I assume). I'd suggest that you clean it out in old tank water weekly, but replace it only when it gets too clogged - to me, Juwel would be keen for you to replace it weekly as it's more cash for them, but it probably isn't necessary.
The rest of the sponges, I'd rinse one in tank water every couple of weeks, on a rotational basis. I'd try and never replace any of them (unrealistic) or at least only replace one at a time when they clearly need it.

Congratulations on the new tank! That is the one I want (Santa? Santaaa!!!????). You will have room for a nice community in there.

I've got smaller Juwel tanks and I do follow instructions and change the filter floss (the white pre-filter thingy once a week); it gets a bit disintegrating otherwise. The black carbon I only put in for clearing medicines, the other two I rinse out occasionally (perhaps one at a time once a month).

This post has been edited by dwarfgourami: Nov 7 2005, 05:00 PM

Thanks people..

DG - at £189 with the cabinet.. it was worth pouncing on i think.. they have a couple left ;-) and its not too far for you..!