For All You Juwel Owners With A Juwel Internal

[raptorrex]

sorry guys gota post this. what they say, in effect, is that juwel filters dont work well as bio filters till they are gunked up, and the flow rate reduces. then they stop working well as mechanicals. they even say the filter is not meant to clean the water, just grow bio! there you go from the horses mouth! amazing.
Honest

I stand by my comments, remove it and get a good filter.

 

[MHunt]

I thought the jewel internal was one of the best filters to use. Personally, i think if you don't like the way the filter works, either change the filter or change the filter media. The jewel is meant to have one of the largest media capacity for the size of tank they're put in.

 

[Truck]

Juwel make some of the best internal filters on the market if there maintained properly they do a great job.

 

[pooloflight]

as i said previously, i have a jewel rekord 120 , the only probs, now weve got the probs of the sponges sorted is its awkwardness to clean , mainly my fault because i have a problem with my hands.... and once ive got the motor out, i can never get it back in place without help, but thats not the filters fault, i have an eheim internal filter in my other tank , and really recommend that, its easier for me to clean , so if my jewel packs up thats what id go for

 

[Truck]

yes thats the prob with the smaller filters awkwardness, but on the Rio's, Vision's, Trigon's and lido's they are all at the top so very easy to clean as they have rear flaps (unsure on the trigon) for cleaning the filters so you dont have to lift the good off.

and i still dont see why juwel didnt fit the rekord 800 and 1000 with the highlight units seeing as there of the same size.

 

[pooloflight]

yes thats the prob with the smaller filters awkwardness, but on the Rio's, Vision's, Trigon's and lido's they are all at the top so very easy to clean as they have rear flaps (unsure on the trigon) for cleaning the filters so you dont have to lift the good off.

and i still dont see why juwel didnt fit the rekord 800 and 1000 with the highlight units seeing as there of the same size.

yes i know i had a rio 240 i think it was a few years back with the two flaps , so much easier to clean , i managed that one ok, someone at lfs told me jewel are stopping the manufacture of the rekord, maybe realised the hood was bad idea , it is heavy and b awkward

 

[Truck]

no theyve discontinued the old ones and bought out a new line.

there is now the rekord:

600
800
1000.
but theyve got better filtration now. but the hoods remain the same and still in black

my rekord is a night mare water everywhere when i clean the pads

 

[raptorrex]

The task of the filter is to reduce the load from fish and food. This load on the water is reduced by bacteria which settle on the filter (biological filtering). This means there has to be a setup stage for the aquarium, as a sufficient number of the bacteria has to form first. To achieve rapid multiplication of the bacteria, sufficient food must be available.

Hint: for this purpose, it is beneficial to feed from the first day, with no fish in the tank.

In the Juwel filter system, large particles are picked up by the filter wadding, to prevent the area below from blocking up quickly. If the filter wadding is changed regularly, there is an increase in the cleaning intervals for the remaining filter media.

To sum up: the filter's main task does not consist in picking up dirt particles but the filter guarantees stable, healthy water conditions, with its biological filtering.

The large amount of porous areas in the blue sponge filters give the bacteria a large surface on which to settle. The coarse filter sponge should only be cleaned once every three months and the sponge filters below only once a year. Avoid cleaning all the blue sponges at the same time, as this reduces the number of filtering bacteria and biological filtering can be interrupted when they are cleaned completely.

Hint: half fill a bucket with aquarium water and squeeze out the sponges in it several times. This is the gentlest way of cleaning, where the filtering bacteria are concerned.
Recirculation:

The cleaning intervals mentioned above mean that the pump can be used less often for optimal circulation. Filtering is more effective when the pump is used less. The filtering bacteria require sufficient contact time with the water requiring to be cleaned.

Increased recirculation produces less effective filtering! Also, an iancrease in water movement expels the most important plant nutrients.
For good plant growth, please do not use additional aeration.

To sum up: the more slowly the water flows through the filter, the more effective the cleaning is. Optimal recirculation only occurs as a result of large cleaning intervals. Vigorous water movement and aeration damage plant growth.

Interesting comments! so what we have here is a bio filter, and one that will not work properly till the filter flow drops. so even the manufacturer says its not up to the task!

they even claim you should not try to increase water flow, to aid filtration. this flys in the face of everything, good, fishkeepers try to do. 5x turnover is now considered a good rate for healthy fish.

looking at this, it is no surprise that these filters get a bad press, its only half a filter, and an inefficient one at that!

 

[Schmill]

Also I don't remember which sponge is designed for nitrate (as suggested abobe) in fact not including floss and carbon are the bacteria really all that fussy about the sponges or their order in the filter?

the carbon and nitrate sponges should be there, but are not needed in a planted tank as the nitrate sponge would remove the nitrate (plant food)

carbon is no good when using meds.

bacteria will grow on anything but a sponge is better because of the surface area.

Better than what? I'm thinking of putting some more ceramics into my external filter cannister as I thought they were the best for bacteria, but to do so I will need to remove a sponge, and don't I don't want to be taking a step in the wrong direction if this is the case?

 

[MHunt]

Externals are different, you have more space for more filtration stages. A sponge will perform mechanical and bio filtration, hence why most internals have sponge only. Ceramic pieces are great at bio filtration as they have a large surface area which can produce a good bio film, but because of their large size they are not as good at mechanical filtration. My external has a large sponge prefilter, then i've got ceramic pieces, then floss wadding to catch smaller particles before the return. All will do bio filtration to some degree, it just depends what you want your filter to do.

 

[pippoodle]

i have sponges and noodles in my internal juwel

 

[raptorrex]

bacteria will grow on anything but a sponge is better because of the surface area.

is it not the case that, sponges, are about the worst Bio media you can get? as far as i can tell, everything on the market has more surface area. true it does the job, but only just. I am not saying it is no good, its just, your basic starter media. if you can find another media to fit, virtually any of the alternitives would be better.

 

[juanveldez]

the only only problem that I see with your argument about slowing down the rate of flow in a tank is that if the tank has large fish such as cichlids, where between the messy eating habbits and the large of amount of waste produced a slow flow rate will crash the tank.

 

[raptorrex]

the only only problem that I see with your argument about slowing down the rate of flow in a tank is that if the tank has large fish such as cichlids, where between the messy eating habbits and the large of amount of waste produced a slow flow rate will crash the tank.

but is that not a result of the total lack of mechanical filtration in the filter? and can i take it you don't agree with the 5X turnover many now think is worthwhile to a tank? reading and talking to those with long experience of Juwel tanks, results in the advice that the filter on any given Juwel tank, is only up to keeping a lightly stocked planted tank. this is not the type of tank, most, people buying Juwel tanks will keep. at least initially.

 

[Truck]

boboboy you ever had a juwel?

i dont know how anyone can say the filtration is crap, they filter well, and the filter on my record 60 has coped with over stocking very well (no ammonia or nitrite spikes) how can anyone say there crap when there the biggest internal filter on a tank that size, and can cope with big bio-loads