You must have a different juwel rio 180 to me then. I just measured mine, from the top of the maximum fill line to the base of the glass is 15". The length from the top of the canopy to the absolute bottom of the tank is only 20". When taking substrate into account I have about 15" of water, maximum 16" from the substrate to the max fill line, and I don't have a deep substrate at all really.