Juwel Rio 240

[jasiep89]

Hi i am buying a juwel rio 240 aquarium very soon i was wanting to know if anyone has any idea if the filter media pump and heater is the same as you get with the rio 125 the last aquarium i had was a rio 125

 

[Essjay]

If you look at Juwel's website you will see that the Rio 125 comes with a 100 w heater while the 400 comes with a 300 w heater.

As for the filter, the 125 has a Bioflow M filter with an Eccoflow 500 pump and the 400 has an Bioflow XL filter with an Eccoflow 1000 pump. Looking at the website, it seems that all three sizes of Bioflow filters - M L and XL - have the same media, with just the size of the sponges getting bigger as the size of the filter increases. So all three filter models come with coarse blue sponges, fine blue sponges, green nitrax sponge, black carbon sponge and white polypad.

Since you have had a Rio 125 I expect you will already know that the green sponge doesn't do anything for nitrate so treat it as a blue sponge; that you don't need to use carbon all the time so leave the black sponge in the cupboard; and that buying a roll of filter wool and using a white pad as a template to cut it up is a lot cheaper than buying Juwel white pads.

 

[jasiep89]

I only used my carbon filter pads every now and then i had my 125 for 10 years and couldn't fault it water was always clear and all my water test were the same everytime i live in the uk would filter wool be available at a lfs

 

[Essjay]

Lots of lfs sell filter wool by the metre from a roll, particularly the ones that also sell pond equipment. Failing that, look at Ebay/Amazon.

 

[jasiep89]

Just had a look on amazon 1 metre for £7.49 thats going to work so much better in the long run rather than spending £6.79 on the juwel pads what thickness would you reccomend?

 

[Essjay]

I would get the same thickness as the Juwel pads. It's a while since I had my Rio 125 and I can't remember how thick they were

I would be inclined to wait till you have the tank then you can see how thick the pads are. You will only need to use one pad during cycling as there will be no fish poo etc to clog it. As cycling will take a few weeks, you'll have plenty time to get a sheet of filter wool.

 

[jasiep89]

I always had the white pad to cycle my tank it was around 5 to 6 weeks before i added any fish where i live its moderetly soft water so alway try and get my water to 7ph neutral before i add any fish plus the longer its left to cycle the better the results but thats my opinion though everybody has there own experiences and ways of cycling do you remember if yo got all your media pads with your 125 i honestly can't remember was that long ago

 

[Essjay]

I got my Rio in about 2007 and I removed the built in filter a couple of months later so I can't remember much about it. But I do remember that all the media came with it. The first thing I did was put all the media from the 60 litre into the Rio, cutting up the sponge and putting the ceramic noodles into a bag, then packing the Rio's media round them; then I moved all the fish over. Then I had to do the same again when I changed the filter for an Eheim Aquaball. I still had a lot of the filter wool sheet that I bought left over when I changed the filter, and it was the shop where I got the Rio that told me to buy filter wool sheets.

where i live its moderetly soft water so alway try and get my water to 7ph neutral before i add any fish

How did you alter the water, with chemicals or by adding salts to harden the water and also raise the pH? I ask because it is not a good idea to change the water by adding chemicals; it is much better to get fish that like your soft water.

Do you still have a tank running, or have you been out of fish keeping for a while?

 

[jasiep89]

I used a buffer i bought from my LFS and used tetra safe water conditioner i kept mostly tetras e.g black phantom, neon, cardinal, glowlight and few lemon tetras i also kept 2 gouramis and 2 rainbow sharks i did have a pleco which grew too big for my tank so i gave it to my friend who had a 6 foot aquarium and its still alive today i never had any bad experiences with my fish as kept them at 7ph so they were ok

 

[Essjay]

It's not the new pH that's the problem it's the chemicals in the buffer. All the fish you list are fine in soft water with acid pH, so why go to the expense (and possible harm to the fish) of adding chemicals?


Do you currently have a tank? Because seeding the new tank with mature media will kick start the new tank's cycle. If you don't, ask the friend you gave the plec to for some of their media.

 

[jasiep89]

My daughter has a 17 litre coldwater aquarium with a shabumkin and yellow gold fish in but i do all the maintenance shes only 5 i kept platties and mollies aswell thats why i had it at 7ph could i use an orniment from my daughters aquarium and put it in mine when i am cycling it