Juwel tanks are great but their electrical equipment is crap, particually on the larger models. We started out with a Rekord 120 as our first decent sized tank which was great, so obviously when the time came to get a larger tank we opted for a Juwel again, this time a Rio 300. This turned out to be one of worst wastes of money i have ever made, within 4 months the heater had failed as the 300w heat supplied just wasnt big enough to keep 300 litres of water at 26c, Juwel replaced this under warrenty with it only to happen again a few months later so i upgraded to 400w visitherm at my own cost. Next the lighting unit failed and on inspection was found to be full of water (presumably condensation), again Juwel replaced this free of charge and admited this had been a problem with the Rio 300 and 400 range, the lighting unit went on to fail twice more within a year but the last one it was replaced with has now been good for over a year so hopefully they now have this problem sorted. The final thing that put me off Juwel tanks for life was when the 10 month old powerhead for the filter decided to fail, during the hottest weather ever recorded while i was on holiday. As the powerhead was supplying 99% of the surface aggitatation which kept the water oxygenated 3/4 of the fish in the tank sufficated at a loss of several hundred pounds worth of fish, Juwel replaced the powerhead free of charge but said they were not accountable for loss of fish. After that i removed the Juwel filter completely.
Another large problem with the Juwel filtration system is that because it is attached to the tank there is no easy way to clean inside the filter housing, over a relatively short period of time a lot of gunk becomes trapped inside the filter and becomes an active nitrate factory which causes horrendous algea problems, i advise anyone with a Juwel tank to stick a syphon down inside the filter housing next time they have the media removed to see just how much crap has collected down there.
The final problem which seems to occur a lot is that the plastic band that goes across the middle of the tank to brace the front and back walls has a tendency to snap off causing the glass to bow alarmingly, this has happened to my tank and several other peoples that i know of, if the tank is in warrenty then Juwel will replace these bars free of charge, if not they cost £12 each as i found to my disgust.
