Juwel Bioflow Filter M

[Bruben]

Hi all,

What are peoples opinions on the Juwel Bioflow M filter? I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews.

I’ve got it in my Juwel Rio 125 and it seems to be doing a good job. Just have the filter sponges in it that came with it.

Obviously I’m very new to this but it seems big and a decent flow rate so I thought this would be good! It’s one of the reasons I went for the Juwel Rio over the Fluval Roma.

Any opinions and experience would be great.

Cheers!

 

[Waterbabe]

Hi all,

What are peoples opinions on the Juwel Bioflow M filter? I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews.

I’ve got it in my Juwel Rio 125 and it seems to be doing a good job. Just have the filter sponges in it that came with it.

Obviously I’m very new to this but it seems big and a decent flow rate so I thought this would be good! It’s one of the reasons I went for the Juwel Rio over the Fluval Roma.

Any opinions and experience would be great.

Cheers!

Hi, if that works for you that's great! Why change something that is doing a good job hey. I have a similar filter system but my filter sits above the tank and water flows over and through the sponges back on to water via a power head, little like a pond style filter box. I have used the kind of filters you have in my other tanks and never had a problem either. To be honest I always buy my own graded sponges and fiber filter media separate and just cut it to size myself as its heaps cheaper. Always best to keep a variety of sponge media in the units, large so the bacteria have a harbour and fine so that the water stays clear. Always rinse your filters in a bucket of your tank water, never clean filters in tap water, guessing you probably already know that anyway.... try not to do filter changes on the same day you do water changes, as it flushes out too much beneficial bacteria. Silly little tip that can prevent a nasty spike... good luck happy fish keeping

 

[Ch4rlie]

Juwel internal filters tend to do exactly what it says on the box, so you cant really go wrong with them provided you maintain them and do what instructions says. You can of course change the media that is inside if you wish to do so as its fairly common practice for folks to go with what they prefer

I have a Juwel Vision 180 and truth be told I actually took this filter off as I prefer my tanks without internal filters and going for larger externals instead, more room inside for the fish to swim in and more room for an extra plant or two as well, just a preference really.

But its a fairly good filter and not much really goes wrong with them.

 

[Bruben]

Hi, if that works for you that's great! Why change something that is doing a good job hey. I have a similar filter system but my filter sits above the tank and water flows over and through the sponges back on to water via a power head, little like a pond style filter box. I have used the kind of filters you have in my other tanks and never had a problem either. To be honest I always buy my own graded sponges and fiber filter media separate and just cut it to size myself as its heaps cheaper. Always best to keep a variety of sponge media in the units, large so the bacteria have a harbour and fine so that the water stays clear. Always rinse your filters in a bucket of your tank water, never clean filters in tap water, guessing you probably already know that anyway.... try not to do filter changes on the same day you do water changes, as it flushes out too much beneficial bacteria. Silly little tip that can prevent a nasty spike... good luck happy fish keeping

Thanks @Waterbabe, appreciate the advice

 

[Bruben]

Juwel internal filters tend to do exactly what it says on the box, so you cant really go wrong with them provided you maintain them and do what instructions says. You can of course change the media that is inside if you wish to do so as its fairly common practice for folks to go with what they prefer

I have a Juwel Vision 180 and truth be told I actually took this filter off as I prefer my tanks without internal filters and going for larger externals instead, more room inside for the fish to swim in and more room for an extra plant or two as well, just a preference really.

But its a fairly good filter and not much really goes wrong with them.

Thanks @Ch4rlie! As long as they do what they say they do that’s all I (and the fish) need!

 

[Essjay]

Don't change the sponges every few months like instructions say, sponges last for years. They just need squeezing in old tank water taken out during a water change.
The only thing that will need changing is the white pad. It's first in the direction of flow to catch the bits so it gets clogged quickly and goes into holes after a couple of washes. Juwel pads are expensive - it is much cheaper to buy a length of filter wool (fish shops, Amazon, eBay) and cut that up to the right shape.
And you can leave the black sponge in the cupboard as carbon isn't needed full time.

 

[Bruben]

Don't change the sponges every few months like instructions say, sponges last for years. They just need squeezing in old tank water taken out during a water change.
The only thing that will need changing is the white pad. It's first in the direction of flow to catch the bits so it gets clogged quickly and goes into holes after a couple of washes. Juwel pads are expensive - it is much cheaper to buy a length of filter wool (fish shops, Amazon, eBay) and cut that up to the right shape.
And you can leave the black sponge in the cupboard as carbon isn't needed full time.

Thanks @Essjay! I’ve already got the carbon sponge in there as I knew no better when I first set the filter up. It won’t do any harm being in there will it?
I was planning on leaving it in there just as another layer of mechanical filtration even after the carbon in it has been used up. (Obviously I’d take it out if I ever needed to put medication in the tank)

 

[Essjay]

No it's fine to leave it there, as you are aware it will remove medication and you know to take it out. But if you have live plants and use a liquid fertiliser it could well remove that too.
Because the carbon is impregnated into a sponge, the sponge part will be a good home for the bacteria.

 

[Bruben]

No it's fine to leave it there, as you are aware it will remove medication and you know to take it out. But if you have live plants and use a liquid fertiliser it could well remove that too.
Because the carbon is impregnated into a sponge, the sponge part will be a good home for the bacteria.

I do have live plants and had been thinking about trying some liquid fertiliser so very good to be aware that it could effect that too! Thanks for the info

 

[gwharton]

Sorry about resurrecting an old thread. Make sure you vacuum out the bottom of the hole that houses the heater. I skipped mine in maintenance and it clogged up stopping the water flow past the heater. My tank was down to 23 this morning. A big glug of black stuff came out in the syphon.

If you have the Juwel vacuum 2.0 it comes with an attachment for vacuuming the heater compartment, but a simple piece of hose would work equally as well.

Graham