My Juwel Rio 240 Journal

Hey guys, my new tank has FINALLY arrived so I thought I should start a thread since I know how much I love reading other people's journals.
It's a Juwel Rio 240, as you may have guessed from the title. I also bought the stand for it too. It came with the built-in filter; a Bioflow 3.0 and two T5 lights. I decided to buy some ceramics for the filter instead of just sponges, which is all the filter came with.


I thought I was never going to get these two huge boxes in my tiny car (Ford KA) but I just managed with help from my LFS owner.


This is the tank all set up. The instructions for the cabinet were quite confusing, in my opinion, but I managed with help from my Grandad!


I decided to go all out and buy the Juwel 3D background and filter cover in 'cliff dark' as I thought it would look good with a sand substrate. Eventually managed to get them cut to size with a massive struggle lol but they're on there now!

I'm leaving the glue to set for about 24 hours, so it should be fine by about 11pm tonight as I was up till who knows what time last night messing about with measurements etc. I somehow got aquarium sealant on my hand too, which wasn't pleasant!

I also have some mopani and bog wood soaking in the bath, which the other half isn't best pleased about lol.

Well that's it for now, I've got a long day ahead washing playsand to put in as my substrate. I'll post more pics and info soon! Hope everyone enjoys reading, thanks for looking

lucky!
The 3D background looks great! Will look even better once everything's set up!

You have got some nice pieces of mopani there, be great to see how you arrange them.

Have you got any ideas for aquascaping it or for the future stocking?

Looking forward to updates....and more pics

So after a VERY long afternoon I've got all the sand washed and the tank filled!
I had to rinse each lot of sand about 6 or 7 times before it was clean enough to put in the tank. It was filthy. It must have taken around 3 hours to complete.


Here is the tank with just the sand in. I've mad it about 2inches deep since I plan on having plants. The planting won't be for a while yet though since I'm going on holiday on Sunday.


Filling the tank. This was much quicker than I expected. I had to attach the hosepipe to the kitchen tap with an extra bit of some kind, which was a bit finicky, but we got there in the end. Only took around 20 minutes to fill completely.


And here is the final pic for now! I've already washed some rocks too as well as the wood. The hard part is the aqua scaping since I'm no good at it lol but I'm going to have a try now anyway. More pics when I'm done. This will be the part I'd love anyone's advice/opinion on as I've seen some beautiful tanks and don't want to ruin mine. Thanks for reading

Blondielovesfish said:

lucky!
The 3D background looks great! Will look even better once everything's set up!
You have got some nice pieces of mopani there, be great to see how you arrange them.
Have you got any ideas for aquascaping it or for the future stocking?
Looking forward to updates....and more pics

Click to expand...

Hey, thanks. I first spotted the backgrounds on someone else's journal and fell in love with them. They're quite pricey though
I think I'm just going to have a play around with the wood and rocks and see which looks best. I was thinking of having wood and rocks on the left and right, then have the middle as a sort of free-swimming area. I'll have to see how it looks. I've got an image in my head of how I would like it but it'll probably never turn out like that lol.
For the stocking I'm planning on moving my cories and X-ray tetra from my smaller tank and largely increasing the numbers. I've been thinking of having a gourami or two as a sort of centre piece fish. My LFS have a gorgeous pair of honeys for £12. I don't know if they would work though. More research is needed!

So here's how I've decided to have the wood positioned. I have some rocks too but can't seem to get them looking natural.
I'm planning on having tall plants that sway all along the back of the tank. Then carpet plants in the foreground. I was also thinking of having some sort of moss attached to the woods. That could look pretty good. Any suggestions would be great!

And has anyone got any idea what I should do with the rocks? Here is a picture of them:

It doesn't have to be all of them. Infact it doesn't have to be any if I can't get them to look right. Just any thoughts anyone has?
Thanks for any help guys

Its looking good! I love that piece of Mopani on the right.
 
You could try maybe piling the rocks or making a sort of arch?
 
The tank looks great with the sand! Looks like it was worth 3 hours
 
Good things cost I suppose
 
The Honey's could work but they're better in in a trio so if you could source another female then they would be even better.

Thanks it's just from the reptile section at one of the LFS's.
and I'll have a go with the rocks, good idea! I'll post pics later to give an idea of what it looks like!

So I've tried making an arch with some rocks and bogwood. I think it'll look a lot better when I get some moss to attach to it and a LOT of plants!



It'll be a while yet until I get plants though as I go away for a week on Sunday. I'll be starting my cycle either tomorrow or Saturday, so it'll be on it's way while I'm on holiday.

So nothing more to add for a while but I'll post pics when I add the plants and fish etc. Thanks for reading folks. More updates soon!

Looks good! Will look even better when some moss and/or java fern/anubias are attached.
I look forward to updates soon.
Have fun on holiday!

have you put anything under your sand? as live plants wont grow in sand, you will be ok with java fern or anubias as these can be attached to rock/wood
 
ive put  john innes number 2 under my sand for my plants to grow in

I'll be using root tabs and liquid ferts for the plants I haven't got any yet though as I'm waiting for the tank to finish cycling.
One thing I have had a problem with is white mould growing on the mopani wood. I came back from holiday and it was covered in the stuff. I gave it a good scrub and boil but it has started to come back so I figure I'm just going to let it die off on it's own once there are no more nutrients left in the wood for it to live off

looks good would like to see fish in that thing

ya don't worry its quite normal

So I finally got my tank cycled and have added new fish yesterday, plus some from my smaller tank. Here are some pics I've chosen 3 pearl gouramis as my sort of 'centre piece' fish





How the tank looks at the moment. I'm looking to add a lot more plants as it look very bare at the moment. Also I had to pull off one of the filter covers as one of my bronze corys managed to get himself stuck behind it. He's fine though, no damage done






So currently I have; 3 pearl gouramis, 5 xray tetras (going to get more when they come into my LFS, 7 bronze corys, 3 albino and 1 peppered (again going to get more when they are available)
Thanks for looking guys

nice i like the background

Looks great!