Juwel Rio 180

[jimbooo]

this thread has been sent to Juwel UK who have forwarded it to one of the directors in germany. he's just back from holiday today so i should have some kind of reply soon hopefully.


Juwel said all the tanks are built to withstand the pressure of water without the top or bottom brace anyway. it may bow but wont break.

so far i've taken their word for it and left it as it is. i hope they get back to me soon though, i'm still nervous of it and tip toe past the tank so as not to cause any movement. LOL

 

[jimbooo]

update:

i have just had a call from Juwel UK. the director in germany is rather concerned. they have never had this problem with the new style centre brace and would really like to see my tank for future development purposes. they have offered to replace the tank minus pump and heater free of charge.....

BUT.... i really dont want to strip it down, it's just way too much work and juwel are sure the glass will be strong enough without it.

i am going to take a load of close up macro pics and email them off to germany.

out of pure coincidence a director and snr manager of Juwel were in my LFS yesterday and saw my tank pics behind the counter. the LFS manager gave them a couple to take away and the lady from Juwel who called me today recognised the tank from this thread...

sod the centre brace, i'm well chuffed. keep a look out for the next juwel marketing brochure!!!! fingers crossed.

 

[Bloo]

Fabulous news !

Well if Juwel are so certain it will be fine, I sure hope it will (fingers crossed!)

 

[jimbooo]

yeah fingers crossed.

i must add that they have been very helpfull and took a very keen interest in the problem. it's not often that a company cares so much about the little people...

i hear a lot of moans about Juwel aquariums but i must say i am very impressed with their tanks (well maybe minus the centre brace) and their customer service is exceptional. if anyone at juwel is still reading this thread, may i extend my thanks and appreciation.

James

 

[Bloo]

it's not often that a company cares so much about the little people...

It's definitely because they are German

 

[ChrisP]

Juwel are a great company, I have a friend that has a Vision260 & Vision300 and he snapped the brace on one of his tanks. Juwel sent him out a new brace complete with glue absolutely free!

Juwel have to be one of the best companys I have heard of as far as customer service goes.

By the way I have a Juwel Rio180 tank that is roughly 2 years old and never once had a problem with it, the original heater, pump and lights are still working fine. Although I do use an external canister and an extra heater as the Juwel suplied filtration is not great and I have heard a lot of bad things about the heaters.

 

[rowdyates]

So as a result of all this, is the consensus you should not add any more lighting to the Juwel tanks because of the heat effect on the centre bar. At the moment I have a Vision 180 with 1wpg and I'm now not sure if I should add anything else. The brace in mine is moulded onto the rim so would not be easily replaced.

Cheers,

Keith

 

[Bloo]

I still use my extra two tubes - the extra 25W at the back and the extra 15W at the fron - both with reflectors.
But mine don't touch the brace and are the same distance from the brace as the fitter tubes on the central unit. The reflectors lean on each other in such a way that it works fine
I'll take my chances
I know what to do if it does crack or break now - in fact maybe I should give it a little prod (!)

 

[jimbooo]

the official word from Juwel is ?

they do sell a lighting upgrade kit allowing 4 tubes to be fitted (slightly differing from my diy upgrade) the centre brace should in theory be perfectly stable with 4 tubes.

hence their concern. they want to actually see my brace to work out how it happened. as i'm not going to strip the tank i am sending them some close ups so they can look into it further.

watch this space

 

[Rob.S]

the official word from Juwel is ?

they do sell a lighting upgrade kit allowing 4 tubes to be fitted (slightly differing from my diy upgrade) the centre brace should in theory be perfectly stable with 4 tubes.

Would that be the monolux/duolux/multilux systems, as shown on the Juwel website???

Have you posted details of your lighting upgrade on the forum? (yes, I know I should do a search, but.... Lazy ) )

 

[jimbooo]

first question: not sure sorry i never knew they did an official upgrade until i started investigating this problem.

second question: i'm lazy as well so dont worry about it. i've taken a load of pics for Juwel and will add them to this post, you'll get the general idea then. pics will probably be up wednesday.

 

[rowdyates]

Is this lighting upgrade on their website and is there one for the Vision 180, I think I may be looking in the wrong place

Keith

 

[jimbooo]

sorry no idea. when i called and explained the problem they said i assume you have the juwel upgraded lighting kit? i said no then explained what i have done.

thats the only mention of the upgrade so far so no idea where to get it from, sorry. i didn't ask as i dont need it.

 

[Bloo]

Don't they just mean the "upgrades" to reflectors ? To my knowledge that's what they refer to.

 

[jimbooo]

no, apparently they do an upgrade to give you 4 tubes. it may be that some people buy 2 light bars and do away with the flaps. thats the only thing i can think of, cant find anything on their site.

i'm uploading piccies now. will post in 4 hours when photobucket manages to upload the 10 pics, jeese it's slow.