Juwel Internal Filter - Poor Design

[ian]

See, i was gonna get a external and mess about cutting holes in the lid and generally makinging a mess of my tank, but i though hey lets just up the powerhead to a 1000ltr/hr and see how it goes, admittedly the tank has only been running 4 months, moderately stocked and the water is crystal clear (polishing pads), water stats have been A1 from day one (with mature media). I have modified the filter slightly by adding 2 boxes of ceramic media and removing the nitrate and carbon sponge. I'm getting decent turn-over in my tank and everyones happy. Plants are doing well, no algae. I think people are to quick to jump on the 'lets think the Juwel filter is rubbish' and give it a try.

also when you look at the media, there is as much/if not more media in a Juwel internal than you Fluval 305's.

 

[danb]

i have an extenral filter on my other juwel tank and i didn't need to cut holes in the lid . . .

It may do the job of a filter, but it just isnt safe. Regardless of what they put on the website saying its not for heavily stocked unplanted tanks; it just isnt safe.

Fish getting inside the filter unit, getting stuck behind and at the sides of the filter with no easy way or releasing them, you need to physically force the filter off the tank.

Its not a safe filter for the primary use of the tanks, fish.

 

[ian]

i can see your point Dan, I suppose Juwel expect you to buy Juwel internal backing to cover up the gaps, but i can see how fish could get stuck. And i would need to cut holes in my Juwel lid.

 

[danb]

Yeah, but even then there will be small gaps from the background to some point on the filter. My juwel tank has indents at the back of the tank at either side big enough to get the external pipes in without disturbing the lid.

 

[Big_eyes]

I have modified the filter slightly by adding 2 boxes of ceramic media and removing the nitrate and carbon sponge. I'm getting decent turn-over in my tank and everyones happy. Plants are doing well, no algae.

That's what I was thinking of, kind of. Which sponges did you remove then? You'll have to tell me the colours because that's as far as I know them as

 

[ian]

Black and green, you shouldn't really need the green one if you tank it planted.

 

[Bala Sharker]

i have a elite 15 internal filter and i found my newly added red robin gourami pinned in behind it this morning quite a shock to see it trapped in there not sure how long he was behind it but seems ok now. surely the makers of these filters would have considered these kinda problems and sorted them

 

[DD2510]

i upgraded the powerhead on my juwel filter and have no issues with water quality or fish getting stuck.. I do agree that the 600 l/ph that you get as standard is not enough for a stocked tank but upgrading to a bigger powerhead has improved things loads.

 

[doresy]

I had a Juwel Rio 125 with the standard filter. Got it second hand, fixed the light (ballast) and replaced the power head.

It was(over)stocked with Tanganyikan Cichlids after Cycling and had perfect water stats all the time I had it.

Admittedly I had one fish that was constantly being harassed by it's tank mates and eventually disappeared but was found living quite happily in the heater section of the filter when I decommissioned the tank!

The only gripe I had was the filter had to be turned off during feeding to prevent food being sucked in, other than that I rated it quite highly.

 

[grumpysteve]

juwel filters work on the theory of slower flow=better filtration. everyone on this forum seems to think the more water that gets turned over the better, but it's not the only factor. what would be the point in turning the water over 10x p/h if there's no media? or not enough media? i removed my juwel internal purely because i didn't like having a big black box in my tank, but i never had any issues with water quality. funnily enough mine came with the 600 powerhead too, and my tank is the rio 240, yet still no issues. the flow was fine and i adjusted it so i had plenty of flow and a bit of surface disruption, no dead spots.

as for fish getting sucked into it, most filters i've seen have the potential to suck fish into them.......

i've now got a tetratec ex1200 and i don't think its nearly as good as the juwel internal. i wish i saved myself a bit of money and got a new powerhead instead

 

[raptorrex]

See, i was gonna get a external and mess about cutting holes in the lid and generally makinging a mess of my tank, but i though hey lets just up the powerhead to a 1000ltr/hr and see how it goes, admittedly the tank has only been running 4 months, moderately stocked and the water is crystal clear (polishing pads), water stats have been A1 from day one (with mature media). I have modified the filter slightly by adding 2 boxes of ceramic media and removing the nitrate and carbon sponge. I'm getting decent turn-over in my tank and everyones happy. Plants are doing well, no algae. I think people are to quick to jump on the 'lets think the Juwel filter is rubbish' and give it a try.

also when you look at the media, there is as much/if not more media in a Juwel internal than you Fluval 305's.

its ok increasing flow, but how will that help? you have no more media, than before. adding a 1000lph head will, more than likely, further reduce the efficiency of the filter. Juwel themselves warn not to clean the filter too often. there reason? because at 600lph the head already gives too much flow for the bio media. the white pads need to become clogged (thus reducing flow) before the filter works efficiently. (all this is on the Juwel site)

as for being too quick to jump on the "juwel filter is rubish" bandwagon? those who express dissatisfaction with the filter have, in my experience, have been owners. surly they are the best judges? i gave the thing a try, six months of trying to make it work. than i got an external. suddenly it was obvious why i was having problems. what i had in my tank was a "pretend" filter. getting a real one was a revaluation . i do though have, quite, high stocking.

 

[danb]

I have been running this filter for 6 months, its awful. Because i had to pull the filter off the tank sides yesterday i wasn't able to stick it back on at that time, i tried to put it as best i could back in the corner, but 1 small piece of gravel must've got stuck in there creating a miniscule gap; enough for one of my neon tetras to get into last night while he was sleeping, i woke up this morning to find him dead sandwiched between the filter and the tank. It is an unbelievably poor excuse for anything resembling a filter.

 

[ian]

its ok increasing flow, but how will that help? you have no more media, than before. adding a 1000lph head will, more than likely, further reduce the efficiency of the filter. Juwel themselves warn not to clean the filter too often. there reason? because at 600lph the head already gives too much flow for the bio media. the white pads need to become clogged (thus reducing flow) before the filter works efficiently. (all this is on the Juwel site)

as for being too quick to jump on the "juwel filter is rubish" bandwagon? those who express dissatisfaction with the filter have, in my experience, have been owners. surly they are the best judges? i gave the thing a try, six months of trying to make it work. than i got an external. suddenly it was obvious why i was having problems. what i had in my tank was a "pretend" filter. getting a real one was a revaluation . i do though have, quite, high stocking.

If you read back, i did increase my media and uping the will help filtration as it passes through the media twice as it would the once with a 600ltr, i also upgraded because my tank is planted and i know the plants enjoy the flow. I emailed Juwel when i upgraded just to make sure i wasn't going to balls things up and the email that i recieved back said that it would actually improve filtration and that i could up my stocking.

as for the Juwel filter is rubbish bandwagon, i have read on this site being first time Juwel owners and cutting the filter out, before even trying it.

 

[raptorrex]

as for the Juwel filter is rubbish bandwagon, i have read on this site being first time Juwel owners and cutting the filter out, before even trying it.

lol, see your point. but what's the point of asking for advice, unless you are prepared to follow it? " thanks for the advice i asked for, but i will ignore it anyway".
why give something a try, after you have been advised, its not worth the trouble?

people don't give advice, just to make juwel look bad. they pass on their experiences, to help others. ever think that people remove, without trying it, because they listen to sound advice. and value their fish enough, to spend extra money, to keep them clean.

lol, and anyway. we dont need to give juwel filters and heaters a bad name. the company does quite well at that themselves.
honestly the advice is given, because they are best removed. not to snipe at juwel.

 

[ian]

we're gonna have to agree to disagree. There are also people who liked there Juwel filters ^^as above. One thing we haven't said on this matter is though, the size of the tanks. I'm running a 190ltr and am happy with the filter (as you already know). However if i was gonna go for a bigger Juwel ie 350,400 or 450, i would be using an external or 2.