Juwel Rio 125l Journal

[bigpee]

Hi all. I'm going to use this thread to record my progress with my second tank and first thought out one. Currently I have a Juwel Reckord 800 in my bedroom and have got on really well with it. However when I started I had never had a fish tank before and there are things I would have done differently (like using a soil substrate rather than gravel). Now I have that second chance - someone at work was selling a Juwel Rio 125 with cabinet for a bargin £50 and I snapped it up.

So now I have a lovely blank canvas which over the next month or two I am going to work on.

For substrate I have bought 20l of aquatic soil (much cheaper than a lot of the expensive substrate at £7) and I am going to add a layer of sand on top of this. For decoration I am planning to add a mini mountain on the left which will be hollow inside to allow fish to hide inside it. There will also be some bog wood. The rocks I am going to source from a local river (boiling first to remove any harmful nasties).

Now whilst I am doing things on the cheap I am undecided about the filter. The current pump looks a little tired and I need to buy new sponges. I am going to consider whether to get an external filter and remove the internal one. Can anyone recommend a cheap external filter?

The lights are currently 2 18watt T8 tubes. This currently gives me a low 1wpg. Like my other tank I'll be getting reflectors to boost this and over time might well get a T5 unit. To go with this I'm going to use a DIY yeast reactor for CO2. My Reckord currently is running with one of these and I'm getting good CO2 levels.

For plants I'm going to start off with a tropical plant collection from Java Plants and I'll see where I go from there. Fish wise I am very undecided. My other half really wants me to get some slightly larger fish than I currently have (tiger barbs, platys, danios, tetras, and american flag fish). Angel Fish seem a good choice here - my tank is fairly deep at 50cm. I am also tempted by a shoal of bottom feeders but other than that I'm at a loss.

Any suggestions for design, plants and fish are most welcome. As I progress this project I'll update this post. I will also be running my first fishless cycle which should be fun!

 

[RadaR]

Looks good. A few points though if I may..

The 2x18W you have will actually be enough to grow anything you want if you have appropriate CO2 and nutrients (I have the same tank as you).
Is that pressurised CO2 you're using with the reactor?
Did you mention a nutrient that you will be dosing?
Angels will get too big for the tank. The height of the tank is ok, but the length isn't. You could only get away with 2 Angels if they were a proven breeding pair. Even then it's a risk.
As for filtration, removing the internal is really up to you. There are plenty of Rio125s with the internal still intact that can get away with it and not look like an eye-sore. If you do remove it then you'll be looking at getting a Tetra EX 1200.

 

[bigpee]

That's a shame about the Angel fishes. I am after a larger fish that I currently I have in my other tank. Maybe some gouramis of some sort would do the trick. I do like the colouring on male dwarf gourami .

After looking at the filter pump and seeing a DIY job sealing the power cord in I decided it needed replacing. Made most sense to get an external filter. I have now removed the old internal filter and have a tetra EX 700 waiting at my neighbours for collection (from Zooplus - very quick delivery ). I know the 1200 would have been even better but couldn't justify the extra cost.

My CO2 is yeast based only and not pressurised. My plants do seem very happy with this set up in my current tank. Ultimately I'd love to get this set up so I can get a reliable CO2 level going on but as always money stops this from happening straight away.

In terms of dosing I'm very new to this. I'm hoping that by using aquatic soil as a substrate my plants will have more nutrients available early on especially when compare to a gravel only substrate. On top of this I'll be using an all in one fert to start with. Going down the EI route looks interesting but I'm worried I'll be spending too much time measuring out things . That said I'm as interested and keen to have a good planted tank as I am the fish in it. If I can't achieve this a relatively cheap and lazy way I'm going to have to go the full hog!

Now my filter has arrived I think I'm ready to go with a fishless cycle. I am missing a heater though and am undecided as to whether to go for an external one or internal one. External makes more sense but means I have to wait for it to be ordered and I'm getting keen to get started! Hopefully I'll have some pictures of the tank with the substrate in place soon. Decided on making a shelf or two with my rocks, rather than a mini mountain.

 

[Danny84]

looking forward to seeing your progress and seeing how this mini mountain looks

 

[bigpee]

Well the substrate and rocks are in, along with a little wood. The mini mountain idea of mine certainly is mini . I'm off to work now so it's going to have to wait for the water to go in. I'll let that settle then turn on the filter and begin my fishless cycle.

 

[lljdma06]

With the low level of lighting and the soil substrate, this is turning out to be a Walstad-style aquarium. I don't think you'll actually need to "inject" CO2. The soil substrate will provide you with it if my understanding of her (Diana Walstad) method is sound. She does use more light, but, I think you'll be fine to grow most of the hardies without any problems and some not so hardies because of the richness of the soil. Some people inject when these types of setups are young to provide the tank with stable CO2. If you do choose to inject CO2, make sure your CO2 is stable. I'm not sure you'll get the most stable CO2 with Yeast injection as your tank is not small. Yeast injection is really a better option for smaller tanks and even then to get the best results, you'll have to be diligent with canister changing.

You also have to watch your livestock for a couple of months while your soil adapts, or whatever soil does. It does something. I am not an expert and I can't recall what it does exactly. During this time, water changes are advisable, but after a couple of months, the need disappears and you can actually get by with months without doing a waterchange for this type of setup and it is actually adviseable. This type of tank becomes very low-maintenance.

The rocks look a little bit too "arranged" for my taste. Not the corner ones but the ring around the corner rocks. If it was more haphazard, I think you'll get a better result. Usually, wood and rocks aren't mixed, but I really like the stump, I think it's cool, especially if you put it a little farther back in the tank. The center rock is a bit strange because it doesn't match the others.

Can you do a favor for me? The rocks look suspect, not the smooth one, but the bumpy ones. Just take one and put a splash of vinegar on it. If it foams, don't use the rocks. They're not suitable for standard aquarium use because they'll play with your pH and harden your water. We don't want that.

All in all, it's a good start. I like that you've done some thinking and not using so much light. 1wpg, that's high light to me!

llj

 

[bigpee]

Thanks for the info and encouragement lljdma06. I agree about the rocks - I'm trying to take my time with this one so I might do some re-arranging. This might be forced on me if the rocks foam - useful bit of info to know. I got them from a local river in the hope that they'd be ok and free . The smooth rock definately is out of place. It might get relegated to my other tank although there's hardly any spare ground there now I've planted crypts everywhere!

I can see the wood does look quite central from the photo but the long tall section is actually resting on the rear of the tank - I'll take a side picture soon .

 

[bigpee]

Can you do a favor for me? The rocks look suspect, not the smooth one, but the bumpy ones. Just take one and put a splash of vinegar on it. If it foams, don't use the rocks. They're not suitable for standard aquarium use because they'll play with your pH and harden your water. We don't want that.

Thanks for this tip. Just checked and some (although not all) rocks started fizzing in places. To be on the safe side they've all been removed. I'll check out homebase in the morning for some pond safe rocks that I saw them selling. I totally agree that the little rock wall I had looked wrong. Still going to have one but have something else in mind now. The problem is the picture I have in my head never quite gets translated to the aquarium!

 

[lljdma06]

It could be a composite of several rocks molded together for construction purposes then just dumped somewhere. This happens in my neck of the woods all the time.

Try for a more random look. Check out some rock placement for Iwagumi tanks by googling Iwagumi. There are some general rules that you can follow and the result should be a decent arrangement.

 

[tropic_john]

Get mineral rock from your lfs that comes in green, pink, silverish, red, mapleleaf rock, ocean rock [2nd best rock] & slate [best rock]

Just realised im rating rocks on their usability , I need to get out more

 

[bigpee]

I'm very interested in all these different styles of planted tank design. For the time being I think mine is definately going to take aspects of several. I've tried to balance my tank better creating a focal point around the shelf and wood. The whole tank will change drastically once the plants go in but I'm happy with the results so far. The stones came from homebase. £7.5 for a huge bag of pond safe scottish cobbles. I have loads spare if anyone wants to take them off my hands!

As always any comments / advice / tips are most welcome. I am very new to this and finding that so far I have only scratched the surface.

 

[bigpee]

The water is now in and the filter on. I'll be starting the fishless cycle in the next day, with plants on order soon to arrive sometime around the 12th. The sole plant in there has been weeded from my other tank. Plenty more where that came from . Not convinced by the wood in my tank, but it does provide a nice amount of cover for my fish. I'll see what happens when the plants go in I think.

 

[mixmaster jay]

its looking good mate keep up the good work

 

[bigpee]

It's nearly plant time now . Hopefully they'll come tomorrow and I'll begin to have a nearly finished looking tank. The fishless cycle has been going well - the tank now goes from 4ppm ammonia to 0ppm over a day. Nitrites are still giving top readings though, but I'm hopeful that'll start to come down soon. With any luck getting plants in the tank now will nip any algea blooms in the bud and tank advantage of all the nitrates that'll soon be in the tank. My fingers are crossed that the tank will be ready for fish in a week or so. Photos to follow once new plants in.

 

[RadaR]

When you have the tank fully planted up you should really stop the ammonia dosing. It will cause algae, same with the nitrite.
With a tank of healthy growing plants they will absorb ammonia before it gets to dangerous levels for the fish and the eft over ammonia (that is undetectable) should go towards feeding your filter bacteria.
In order for this to work though, the plants must be growing well. In other words, they must have enough nutrients (micro and macro) and carbon (whether liquid form or gas) and circulation available to them.
If this is working then you can get a group of 5-6 fish in a week.