Juwel Or Seabray?

[Matt2006]

Hi, have narrowed down my search for a new 4ft tank to either a juwel rio 240 (£320 at my LFS) or a seabray equivalent (£270=tank/stand/hood only)
Can anbody tell me which make would be best to go for based on quality/reliability etc?
the juwel seems tempting due to price and the fact it comes with filter/lighting etc already installed, as i understand it the seabray will just include tank, hood and cabinet in my preferred choice of mahogany finish which isnt available in the rio but the finish isnt THAT important. Ive had a look around regarding lighting but am not sure what id be looking at spending realistically for the seabray (48"x20"x15") for tropical fish and with very few live plants (probably only java fern) so lighting only really necessary for looking at fish so nothing powerful needed. Ideally would also like a moonlight effect bulb for evening and a timer aswell but not essential. Am a little concerned that the whole lighting system may well price the seabray out of range, basically i dont mind if maybe the seabray costs an extra £100-150 more than the juwel for the whole setup but dont want to go too expensive
Regarding filters ive read a lot of good things on here about eheim filters so think i will go with them, am looking at an eheim ecco 2236(£70 with media). Would this be sufficient for the tanks in question (260-300litres) states it is suitable for upto 300litres but would it be best to go for a filter with a higher rating, or perhaps a different brand altogether?
Will be asking my LFS the above later this week but would like a few opinions so i know what im looking at beforehand-i assume buying the lighting system (maybe not bulbs) would be much cheaper online than in a LFS so if anybody could recommend any product that would suit my needs i could research online for a better price.
any help or advise would be much appreciated!
thanks
Matt

 

[Matty]

seabray

 

[CFC]

As with all things in the fish world you get what you pay for in terms of quality, having experienced juwel tanks i would have to say i would never buy one again. By paying the little bit more for a seabray tank with all seperate equipment you are able to tailor the tank to what you want to keep in it and have a far superior set up.

Personally i would go with a Eheim classic filter as the ecco's have a slower flow rate and are more prone to clogging, the classic 2217 model would be more than adequate for your tank and you should be able to pick one up for around the same price as the ecco. Eheims are probably the best commercially available filters you can buy, do not be tempted by similar looking cheaper brands as they will let you down.

For lighting go with Arcadia ballasts, you can pick these up for about £25 each and since you dont plan on a planted set up one for a daylight and one for a moon light is all you need.

 

[littleimp]

Seabray without a doubt!!

The only advantage of buying a juwel over seabray is the built in filter but that seems to be pants anyways (check out ebay for the amount of people who have cut them out & selling them!!)

Seabray tanks look like a piece of furniture, juwel tanks look like an argos bookcase......

I think the only reason that juwel tanks are popular is a very good marketing & sales team, every fish shop you go too seem to have an abundance of them and not much else to choose from unless you order it, which most people don't want too.

For lighting my choice would be 2 x T5 39w (these are 34" and would fot in hood nicely)
T5 have a higher light output/inch.

You can get a T5 twin ballast, 2 x full spectrum plant bulbs & reflectors for £85.29 here.

http/www.fishfurfeather.com/lights-t5-tu...c-1_47_105.html


I'm using these myself except I made the ballasts myself (half price) and am getting brilliant results with good fish colours too.

Your filter choice will be fine as long as you stick within stocking guidelines.

 

[karlp]

Just to balance this out a bit and give another view point...

Having owned two Juwel tanks, I think they're well put together, good quality and very good for beginners who want an all in one solution. The only downside I think is that the cabinets are not exactly inspiring unless your thing is fake wood flat pack and eventually you may want to get rid of the internal filter.

My policy with filtration and heating is that these form part of the life support system of the fish, so go for two of everything.. two low powered heaters are better than one high powered one, because if one heater fails, you have much more time to spot the problem before your fish freeze or cook (in fact they wont freeze if one fails off). With filtration, if you have two filters then if one gets blocked or fails, you'll spot it before the water quality deteriorates.

On that basis I would suggest that if you are on a budget, go for the Juwel 240 and with the extra money you save, buy a second heater (you could run a Rio 240 with 2 * 150Watt heaters) and buy the external eheim your planning on getting and run it at the same time as the Rio 240 internal. This will give you the redundancy. If at a later stage you want to get rid of the internal, then add a second external of similar specification.

Cheers

Karl.

 

[Matt2006]

thanks for the responses. Saw the juwel rio in my local LFS and to be honest it wasnt what i was expecting-did look very cheap-as you say, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately (well as far as my wallets conerned anyway!) I came across a solid mahogany seabray tank in the size that i wanted which im strongly thinking about getting. They did have a couple of seabray tanks at the sort of price i had in mind but again i thought they looked cheap-believe they were the melamime (or whatever its called) finish.
Think im just going to have to pay the extra to get what i want, surprising how good you can make a tank look in a photo compared with how it really looks in the flesh...
regarding the filter i think it makes sense for me to go for the professional 2217 than save a few ££ to go for the ecco.
will let you know what i do end up getting tank wise.
thanks again