Rio 125

[didz04]

Hi I wanted to ask a couple of questions about this tank size.
When its called rio 125 is it because its 125 liters? However the measurements of the tank are 81cm x 35cm x 50cm and the max volume you can put in according to the calculator on this forum is 142 liters?
I am hopefully picking up tank today. Still thinking what to stock so what would you stock in a rio 125?

Thanks

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

If its like my Rio240 though, the max water line is about 6cm lower than the top of the tank and 81x35x44 happens to be 125l

 

[shroob]

The tank dimensions would be theoretical maximums, other factors decrease volume eg. filter, decorations, sand and water not being full to the top.

Also, when you think about it, wouldn't a manufacturer want to claim their tanks hold as much as possible, if the tank could hold 140 litres, you think they would call it the Rio 140.

With regards to stocking, I would personally do either a shell dweller aquarium or a planted south american biotope.

 

[BethK]

I have this tank, the water line is about 4cms from the top of the tank.

It's a good tank to have but I would remove the built in filtration system and purchase an internal or external filter (fish have a habit of getting stuck in the built in filter).

It's spacious and the best tank I have had so far, looks smart too.

You could put a few apistogrammas (dwarf cichlid) in there, maybe with some harlequin rasboros and Serpae tetra.

For the apisos, maybe;

Apistogramma agassizii
Apistogramma cacatuoides
German Ram
Bolivian Ram

3 females to 1 male, give them the whole bottom of the tank and you can have schooling fish for the middle and top. Lots of plants and hiding places, just to give you an example how a Rio 125 looks, here is mine;

 

[didz04]

Thanks, I see why now however, I did think that could be one of the reasons.
Stocking I'm still unsure of but haven't had dwarf cichlids before or a shell dwelling group. However I am adding lots of ocean rock thats been left over from other tank so that would definitely decrease the water volume lol.
Thanks BethK for your pics here are some of mine. I picked up tank yesterday from Leeds, the guy used it for marine and has a bigger marine tank. I'm turning a nano 60 liter into saltwater but still buying equipment and hopefully upgrade to the rio 125 and the tank has copper inside so need to get it out before starting it as marine, however for now its going to be a tropical setup.
Will any fish in tropical be affected by copper? I know shrimps can be affected by it but thats all I know for tropical setups, however its a whole big thing not to have copper in saltwater setups.

Here's the Jewel rio 125..

We cleaned it with hose pipe outside and sponge but added water for tonight and then emptying it again..

The tank is currently in kitchen but we are going to place it where TV is so it stands out the most there and best seating area in the kitchen
We are going to Viscum today to pickup a pack of black sand, black background and the original flap for the rio 125. Is the hood just a flap like it says and does it normally have built in light units as standard and fittings inside of the hood to fit in a light unit and tube?

Any more ideas on stocking by the way, very interested to hear more even on the oddball side. I'm thinking of adding my current african cichlids to this setup but would prefer something different??

Thanks

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

How about a mainly African riverine theme then, some great oddballs in there...

1/2x African Butterfly (ideally just one male, as they do get feisty with each other sometimes)
2x Steatocranus cichlids {casuarius or tinanti are the common ones} (start with 4 in the hope of a lifelong pair, finding new homes for other two)
3x Synodontis nigriventris (social catfish, at least a trio)
7/8x Congo Tetra or Yellowtail Congo Tetra (latter more hardy, but more expensive and harder to source)
1/2x Cameroon Fan Shrimp (I'm still trying to get an idea of how they would get on with my Steatocranus, especially at molting time, needs a mature tank of six months)
1 or 3x Microctenopoma congicum or ansorgii (must be one male only in tank, needs trio or more for spread aggression)
1x Chaetostoma plec (South American and not African, but they are quirky looking and would suit same envirnoment as above)

Tank would need moderately hard water and consequent natural pH of ~8 (before CO2 for any plants); temp of ~23C for high oxygen saturation; relatively huge turnover of water in region of 8x tank capacity or more; Anubias plants and Java Fern work work a treat in such conditions

 

[BethK]

RIo 125 has 2 inbuilt lights in the hood

If you go with african, i like the above suggestion ^^

Dwarf cichlids are fairly easy to keep, as long as you stay ontop of their water changes, in a 125, i would say you could have a couple of diff apisto breeds, as they are only about 2-3cms in size.

But keep in mind, it's advised not to keep african and s.americans together

 

[didz04]

How about a mainly African riverine theme then, some great oddballs in there...

1/2x African Butterfly (ideally just one male, as they do get feisty with each other sometimes)
2x Steatocranus cichlids {casuarius or tinanti are the common ones} (start with 4 in the hope of a lifelong pair, finding new homes for other two)
3x Synodontis nigriventris (social catfish, at least a trio)
7/8x Congo Tetra or Yellowtail Congo Tetra (latter more hardy, but more expensive and harder to source)
1/2x Cameroon Fan Shrimp (I'm still trying to get an idea of how they would get on with my Steatocranus, especially at molting time, needs a mature tank of six months)
1 or 3x Microctenopoma congicum or ansorgii (must be one male only in tank, needs trio or more for spread aggression)
1x Chaetostoma plec (South American and not African, but they are quirky looking and would suit same envirnoment as above)

Tank would need moderately hard water and consequent natural pH of ~8 (before CO2 for any plants); temp of ~23C for high oxygen saturation; relatively huge turnover of water in region of 8x tank capacity or more; Anubias plants and Java Fern work work a treat in such conditions

Thanks thats like the whole stocking plan do for me and some great ideas. I already have a congo tinanti cichlid I would say at 3.5-4" but he is the only one as only one left at lfs. The Synodontis nigriventris are really nice looking but its about if I can find the right one because there are so many different kinds of upsidedown catfish. The yellowtail Congo Tetra look good for shoaling fish. I don't know about the Cameroon fan shrimp but the original fan shrimp also named the bamboo shrimp I have kept before with the congo tinanti cichlid and have had no problems. The shrimps were around 5cm. The ansorgii I'm a bit unsure what it looks like because on google images it comes out with 2 different fish.

Isn't this one a pipe fish?

and this

Either way they both look really nice lol.
I am not to keen on plecs because they make too much mess with their waste but might still suggest one for my tank because I am getting black sand and so it wouldn't really stand out too much. However since its being in the kitchen right next to the dining table I don't want people getting put off buy it lol. Would I be able to keep a spiny eel in there and which kind?

RIo 125 has 2 inbuilt lights in the hood

If you go with african, i like the above suggestion ^^

Dwarf cichlids are fairly easy to keep, as long as you stay ontop of their water changes, in a 125, i would say you could have a couple of diff apisto breeds, as they are only about 2-3cms in size.

But keep in mind, it's advised not to keep african and s.americans together

Thanks yeah I have had problems in past with SA and African cichlids so I know my self the situation I will get me in to lol.

 

[didz04]

I didn't buy my equipment today for this tank e.g. the sand and background but hopefully were going down tomorrow. I was going to buy the flap off someone on ebay and he said that it attaches on top of the light unit??? so I asked him to take a picture of both sides of the flap.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

How about a mainly African riverine theme then, some great oddballs in there...

1/2x African Butterfly (ideally just one male, as they do get feisty with each other sometimes)
2x Steatocranus cichlids {casuarius or tinanti are the common ones} (start with 4 in the hope of a lifelong pair, finding new homes for other two)
3x Synodontis nigriventris (social catfish, at least a trio)
7/8x Congo Tetra or Yellowtail Congo Tetra (latter more hardy, but more expensive and harder to source)
1/2x Cameroon Fan Shrimp (I'm still trying to get an idea of how they would get on with my Steatocranus, especially at molting time, needs a mature tank of six months)
1 or 3x Microctenopoma congicum or ansorgii (must be one male only in tank, needs trio or more for spread aggression)
1x Chaetostoma plec (South American and not African, but they are quirky looking and would suit same envirnoment as above)

Tank would need moderately hard water and consequent natural pH of ~8 (before CO2 for any plants); temp of ~23C for high oxygen saturation; relatively huge turnover of water in region of 8x tank capacity or more; Anubias plants and Java Fern work work a treat in such conditions

Thanks thats like the whole stocking plan do for me and some great ideas. I already have a congo tinanti cichlid I would say at 3.5-4" but he is the only one as only one left at lfs. The Synodontis nigriventris are really nice looking but its about if I can find the right one because there are so many different kinds of upsidedown catfish. The yellowtail Congo Tetra look good for shoaling fish. I don't know about the Cameroon fan shrimp but the original fan shrimp also named the bamboo shrimp I have kept before with the congo tinanti cichlid and have had no problems. The shrimps were around 5cm. The ansorgii I'm a bit unsure what it looks like because on google images it comes out with 2 different fish.

Isn't this one a pipe fish?

and this

Either way they both look really nice lol.
I am not to keen on plecs because they make too much mess with their waste but might still suggest one for my tank because I am getting black sand and so it wouldn't really stand out too much. However since its being in the kitchen right next to the dining table I don't want people getting put off buy it

lol. Would I be able to keep a spiny eel in there and which kind?

RIo 125 has 2 inbuilt lights in the hood

If you go with african, i like the above suggestion ^^

Dwarf cichlids are fairly easy to keep, as long as you stay ontop of their water changes, in a 125, i would say you could have a couple of diff apisto breeds, as they are only about 2-3cms in size.

But keep in mind, it's advised not to keep african and s.americans together

Thanks yeah I have had problems in past with SA and African cichlids so I know my self the situation I will get me in to lol.

This is the chap, stays under 8cm. Aquajardin have two left and one of them is a male in ful bloom

I suggested that syno as they stay relatively small (~10cm), http/www.seriouslyfish.com/profile.php?genus=Synodontis&species=nigriventris&id=287

Chaetostoma stay quite small for a plec too, ~10cm (depending on which species you get, there are many species,
http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=308 )

 

[BethK]

the hood is made up of 3 plastic boards, the middle board has a light fixture fitted underneath it, enabling a light tube (can't remb the name) to fit either side of it.

It should look like the hood on the below link;

juwel hood

^That's the one that comes with it, unless it is a custom made or alike. but it looks like you only need the boards. So you would just need something like this lighting and these flaps.

 

[ian]

I have this tank, the water line is about 4cms from the top of the tank.

It's a good tank to have but I would remove the built in filtration system and purchase an internal or external filter (fish have a habit of getting stuck in the built in filter).

an external?

So you would remove an external to put in another external?

The Juwel internal is more that adequate if you wanted to use it. Do you have experience with the Juwel internal? Its a very good filter and again i will argue that people are all for removing without even tring it.

ps an external filter would be better, but not everyone can get away with one.

 

[BethK]

the filter the 125 comes with,has a habit of getting fish stuck, tried once and took it right out, i'm not risking them plus it takes up a chunk of room in a tank imo.

 

[ian]

You siliconed it back it and then took it straight out? The tank you bought didn't have it in? I agree they are an eyesore in the smaller tanks, but don't disregard them, plenty of people use them and rate them.

 

[BethK]

no, didn't silicone it in, placed it in, held it in place and a khuli still managed to get in (sneaky things ). Had a read up on the filter, as i needed new bits for it and came across many people saying their fish got stuck in it and that the pump knackers easy. So, to save time and money, brought a new filter.

But that is my personal view.

edit: sorry, meant to add it was the box container