Harrys Juwel Rio 125 Marine Tank

[Harry1996]

hi everyone as some of you know i was going to set up an orca tl550 but i have changed my mind again anyway to fit the juwel tank in i need to move my 2 tropical tanks to the right of my room!! this will be hard but here is what im going to do.
first take out the rocks,wood,filters,heater and fish. then take out all of the water and put it in a big horse feeding bucket. after that i move the cabenets along. then put everything back in. i will post pics up when i download the sofware of my camera on the laptop

 

[Harry1996]

here is the list to buy
Juwel rio 125 aquarium and stand £219.99 (seapets)

2 Juwel High Lite Tubes Marine £39.98 (seapets)

2 Hydor Koralia 1 power heads £44.01 for both (ware house aquatics)

V2Skim 400 Protein Skimmer £65 (reefstore)

100L salted Ro Water £20 (lfs)

Salifert Profi Test pH £5.80 (all test kits are from ultimate aquatics)

Salifert Profi Test Ammonia £7.50

Salifert Profi Test Nitrite £5.80

Salifert Profi Test Nitrate £6.75

Deltec Refractometer £29.90 (reef store)

Caribsea - Aragamax Grand Bahama - 30lb bag £17.79 (coral culture online)

2 Buckets £2
13kg of live rock £117 (lfs)

ETI Electronic Digital Aquarium Thermometer
£8.20 (aquatics online)
should i get a reflecter for the tank? also should i have 1 blue and 1 white light or should i just get 2 white lights?

 

[Harry1996]

ok i have just read about sumps and i would like to have one but i dont know what i need. can some one give me a list to buy for a sump in a juwel rio 125 thank you

 

[AK77]

ok i have just read about sumps and i would like to have one but i dont know what i need. can some one give me a list to buy for a sump in a juwel rio 125 thank you

When you get the Juwel Rio 125, measure the inside of the cabinet. If there is a centre support behind the two doors, this will need to be removed and then an "n" shaped wooden reinforcing structure should be put in place to support the tank. If there is no centre support, then ignore the above and just measure the inside of the cabinet.

Since my old Juwel Rio 180 could only just house a 2ft and hob skimmer, I'm assuming you will be looking at probably a standard 18" long tank. You may be lucky and still fit a 2ft tank in there, as I had to use a reinforcing structure which reduced the amount of space I had inside the cabinet.

Apart from the tank, you will need glass baffles cut to size. You could actually get away with using acrylic and siliconing it in place. Although silicone doesn't form a strong bond with acrylic, it should be sufficient to hold baffles in place.

The other thing you will need to do is either get your tank drilled or use an overflow box. Personally, I would get the tank drilled. Its a lot safer in the long run. You could use an overflow box but, they do require the air syphoning out of them from time to time. Have a read up on Melevsreef.com. There is lots of information on sump design, overflow boxes, weirs, etc, etc.

You can also save yourself £30 and look on ebay for vibration water pumps. You will find powerheads that are identical to the Koralias for £16 with free shipping. Look for the 3000 LPH one's. For £22 you can get a dual one which shifts 6000LPH.

I'd also look on ebay for your protein skimmer too. You will be able to pick up a V2 skimmer or another decent make, used, but at a decent price. So long as its in good working order, its well worth doing. I picked up a £230 skimmer for £70. I paid another £15 for a replacement impeller. Good as new!

I'd also recommend that you look on ebay for people selling live rock locally. People often close down their tanks and sell the rock for significantly less than what your LFS would charge. Mine were charging £13 a kilo the last time I looked.

I also tend to find that ebay is the cheapest place for the test kits as well.

 

[Harry1996]

£13 a kilo thats high mine are charging £9 a kilo and it has loads of life on it. thanks for your help

 

[Harry1996]

i will be moveing my tanks this weekend and there will be pictures also much noise done the v2 400 make?

 

[Harry1996]

can some one tell me if you can drill a hole in the bottom of a juwel rio 125 tank for a sump? also what size return pump do i need i was thinking 1500lph

 

[AK77]

can some one tell me if you can drill a hole in the bottom of a juwel rio 125 tank for a sump? also what size return pump do i need i was thinking 1500lph

Yes you can drill the bottom of the tank. To do this you will need a diamond grinding bit large enough to fit your bulkhead into. The type of drills used for boreing into ceramic tiles should do just fine. You can find them on ebay. They have a blue template that comes with them which are ideal for getting a true cut.

I would suggest that you do not invert the tank to do this but instead, drill from inside the tank as it will be more stable and the base will absorb vibration. I would also suggest that you fill the tank with 2-3mm of water when doing this, to keep the cutter cool and help wash away the glass powder. Also, don't force the drill, let the bit do the work and take your time. Its a relatively slow operation. The slower you do it, the better the end result will be and less chance of cracking the base. If you are using a mains powered drill be careful of the water. It might be a good idea to wear rubber gloves when doing this, as you will get a better grip on the drill and at least you wont come into contact with the water.

I'd also recommend that you drill two holes, one in each corner. Two downpipes will better for a couple of reasons. One is that should one pipe ever get blocked by a wandering snail, dead fish or something of that nature, your tank won't over flow or fill to a point where the seals rupture. I speak from experience here as my downpipe got blocked by a snail, causing the tank to overflow and the seals on my Juwel 180 ruptured when it overfilled.

The second reason is for noise. The more water a pipe has travelling down it into the sump, the more air will get sucked in with it and you will have horrible gurgling noises. Two 32mm - 40mm down pipes will handle the flow of water from the sump pump with ease. If you use durso's on them, they will be virtually silent too.

I would also recommend that you create weirs around the drill holes. These will help keep the critters out but also, should the glass around the holes crack in the future, then the weirs will help serve as a barrier, preventing the entire water volume from empying onto your living room floor.

As for the pump, you want about 3-5 times the tank volume flowing through the sump. 125L + sump volume (80L) giving you around 200L in all. 600-1000LPH should be flowing through the sump so you want a pump that will push about that much at the return head height. Personally I would go for a Hailea HX6530. They move 1750LPH and would give you around 1000LPH at that 1m head height. If it is a bit too powerful, simply tee off of the return pipe and have a tap valve. That way you can control the flow into the main tank.

The cheapest place for these is www.first4fish.co.uk. They are decent pumps at a great price. I've bought several from them and never had one fail on me yet.

Good luck,

AK

 

[Harry1996]

thanks ak77 you have been very helpfull. i should be moving my tropical tanks to the right so i can put a juwel rio 125 aquarium in place im also going to buy a v2 400 skimmer to day or tomoz is this any good if i put live rock in the comparments http/www.aquaone.co.uk/marisys.php also how big of a tank tank do you need for a serpent star?

 

[Harry1996]

would the electric bills go up much if i had juwel rio 180 if so how much? would it be much differnt to a juwel rio 125 the 180 has 2 45W t5 tubes and the 125 has 2 28w t5 tubes.

 

[Truck]

at 8 hours a day, my rio 125 uses 56 watts an hour, if you times 56 watts by 8 hours which is 448 watts, in a week this is 3136 watts which is the equivalent of 3.136 kilowatt hours, a Kilowatt hour on my electricity bill was 14p when I last checked, so 14*3.136= 43.904 pence.

If it were the rio 180 which uses 90 watts, it would be 90*8*7/1000 (answer*The cost of a KWH) so on my electric meter it would cost, 70.56 pence. so it will be a little bit more, the price may vary dependent on the cost of each KwH

The formula you should use is:

(Lighting in watts*hours a day*7) divide this by 1000 and then do: the answer*the cost of 1KWH

The lighting unit will use a little more than it says though, because more power is required for start up and some of it is wasted in heat energy.

 

[Harry1996]

thanks truck i have done the move now all i have to do is buy the tank less talk more pictures

heres my tanks were they were before.

stuff moved from room.

the big buckets i used to put the water in.

during the move.

after the move.

next week i should geting the tank

 

[seffieuk]

Woo hoo, you have been busy

Seffie x

 

[Harry1996]

because we live close to seapets i might get the tank some time during the week sorry for the 4th and last picture not being very good.

 

[Harry1996]

can some one help me quickly i went to my the only lfs that sells live rock and in the tank it had lots brown looking things that look like aiptasia. one rock was completly coverd in them it was only 2-3 rocks though but thats were im buying my live rock from can someone tell me if it aiptasia. they were brown about 3cm tall they look a bit like this http/www.berghia.net/pics/IM004064aiptasia1.jpg also im ordering my skimmer tonight.