£300 Tank Advice Please :)

[Seb Spiers]

I've been looking at ~200l tanks in the £300 region and have seen Fluval, Juwel, and Rena, of which I liked the look of the Fluval the most.

The stores seem to be trying very hard to enourage me to buy a Juwel due to better german build quality, but due to my suspicious nature i never really trust sales staff.

Which generally is the better brand for this size of tank?

The three I've been looking at are;

Hagen Fluval Roma 200 & 240.

Juwel Rio 240

Rena Aqualife 200

I've discovered I'll be able to get these all at a good discount as a friend works for a LFS/Garden Centre (I should be able to get the Cabinet for free too) so they should all fit into my £300 budget.

Has anyone any advice or recommendations? One thing I am aware of is that the Fluval tanks come with External filters which are contained within the cabinets and the Juwel ones have internal filters. Which are better? I was considering the external's as better as they don't take up some of the volume inside the tank.

Any advice is much appreciated

 

[shelaghfishface]

jewel, tho i do like th rena aqualife, i have heard more than once that the braces have snapped.on looks rena,on reputation,jewel,and the roma i dont like very much,sorry

 

[freerunner416]

I looked at the Juwel and the fluvals when i was looking into buying tanks. I eventually went with the Juwel Vision 260. I think it just looks classier and sturdier than the fluval. Hope that helps.

 

[flash22]

i have 3 juwel's so i maybe a bit bias. the roma looks ok but over time the cabinets start to look shabby. i have seen a year old roma and the front doors had warped

 

[minxfishy]

Rena are the best tanks IMO - I dont have one YET! But its one that I want.

I have a fluval roma - they do look nice but I had a problem with the 1st tank I had which had a condensation leak, which is easily rectified with extra silicone around the hood, Hagen were great, replaced the tank and stand, which started to bow slightly because of the leak, the replacement has had no problems thus far.

Personally not a huge fan of juwels, purely because I dont like the filters, I prefer externals so that would sway my decision if you had them all in the same price bracket.

So IMO Rena 1st, Fluval 2nd.

 

[spesh]

I've got a roma 125 here and quite like it. No problems with build quality of the cabinet, its pretty damn sturdy and reasonably well organised. The tanks is, erm, a tank Hood's not the best though. The light unit is good but the plastic lift up feeding flaps are very flimsy and flop about, have to be careful not to knock them out and scare the fish.

I'd love a Juwel vision though!

 

[Aaron89]

Juwel Rio 240.

I have the rio 180 and altho mine cracked, juwel were very good at sorting the situation and again i have another rio 180.

i personally think that the juwer rio collection is one of the better looking designs of tank and they are easy to use and your rio 240 should come with the T5 ligthing which is 'spose to be much better than T8. i think juwel have added a bit onto their prices compared to last year due to the new lighting supplied but i would pay the extra

Good luck deciding, let us know what you choose

 

[ALW]

Go for the Juwel 240

 

[Efren]

juwel-

rena would be my 2nd option

 

[three-fingers]

IMO fluvals are the best value - they have light timers built into the hood, and a proper external filter.


Juwel filters are crap IMO for anything but a low-medium stocked tank of small community fish, and they use non-standard lighting tube sizes so you always have to buy th emore expensive juwel branded ones.


The rena tanks good, but lighting isn't as high spec so if you want nice plants in the tank you'd be better going for one of the other two.

I'd go for the fluval.

 

[Bigpig]

On looks the Renna. but I would go for the Roma(but not in black)

 

[smithrc]

dont buy new

£300 will get you a very nice second hand tank a lit bigger than the ones youve speced...

 

[Seb Spiers]

dont buy new

£300 will get you a very nice second hand tank a lit bigger than the ones youve speced...

Where would I shop for used? I do enjoy the comfort of a warranty.

 

[england]

i always get second hand
ebay
here http/www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/
here http/www.adtrader.co.uk/traderhome.php?trader_id=9001
local newspapers,

 

[shelaghfishface]

I do enjoy the comfort of a warranty

insure it then