Jewels High-light System In Rio's

[aibo210]

Hi

I want to start a new planted tank I was looking into a jewel rio 125 it says its got a high-lite system of 2 x 28watt tubes is this going to be enough for plants?
I dont have experience with jewel tanks or bulbs

I just want a good 125l tank without messing around with lighting to much. at the moment I got a 65l tank running with a tetra ex600 and pressurised co2 I want to transfer everything to this new tank...filter,fish,co2,water etc

Will my filter fit to save me cycling? ive herd jewel tanks have a box in the corner?

Any ideas what to go for? and how to go about it even!

 

[lisa_perry75]

Hi,
Yeah I think that would be enough lighting. The filtration probably won't be strong enough though. You want to aim for 10x tank turnover. So as you want a 125 litre tank you need a filter with 1200 lph rated turnover. Tetratec ex1200 is great! I have one on a rio 125. Rip out the stock filter as its bulky and horrible. To avoid cycling you can put your ex 600 media into your new filter.
Lisa

 

[SuperColey1]

2WPG of T5 is perfect as long as you have CO2. T5s are so much more efficient than the WPG rule asseses that it could be closer to an equivalent of 4WPG on the rule, so pressurised on this tnak is a must!!

EX600 will be too small for a 125. I use the EX700 with only half the media in it and in a planted tank this is struggling a little. You will either need a powerhead to assist circulation or upgrade. The golden rule in planted tanks is for circulation to be between 5 and 10 x tank volume per hour (prefereably in the upper reaches) so a minimum of 650lph prefereably closer to 1200 (EX1200).

Remember that media reduces the throughput somewhat so when using a 10x filter the throughput may reduce by as much as 25% even when clean!! Add into this any equipment you have in line and the length of tube it all reduces the flow.

Will my filter fit to save me cycling? ive herd jewel tanks have a box in the corner?

Why would you need to cycle? Get a different filter and all you have to do is put the media straight into the new one. Then you are already cycled as it should already have a bacteria colony fit for the fishload you already have.

Andy