Juwel Rio 400 Info

[dbanner]

Yeah I'm curious of this too. Iv loved every juwel tank iv had and not had a single problem with any of them.

Funny you mentioned roma tanks though. My friend had 2 romas within a year but has now moved to a rio 300 as both the romas started to leak before the year was up. My 1st thought was he has 2 dodgey tanks lol

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

My personal view on Roma is yes. they have a much nicer "style" than Juwel, but from everything I have read - Juwels are built to a really high standard by a German company and lets face it, the Germans are famous for the quality of product they send out. I think the Romas are produced somewhere in the far east and, again it's hearsay, but I've read that the build quality on them is a bit "cheapy".

 

[Nettley]

thank you for all the replys very helpful.. would like to see pictures of peoples tanks to get ideas on how to scape the 400

Edit: Picking the tank up this evening!.. will post some picture up.

 

[Tizer]

How come?

Just out of curiosity

Firstly, with the stand, the doors drop on the hinges and scrape the bottom. As the unit gets older, the laminate starts to peel away. I think the latter issue is a problem with most old stands though and depends how good you are at keeping it dry when water changing and such. Besides all that, i think the stand looks utterly crap, the old fashioned laminate furniture wood doesn't do it for me. The new Roma stands are a lot thicker which give them a much more solid look and feel.

The glass on the tanks is great, no problem with that, but the hoods, over time, start to warp so when you close the lids there is a gap at the front and back. Also, the lids need cutting to fit external filter hoses OR you have to take a chunk out of the back of the trim which looks really untidy. The Roma's have tabs which you can snap out to fit the hoses. Also, the handle on the lid is too close to the lights, if you got high wattage tubes in there, they melt!

Er....cant recall what else i disliked...probably a few other things A brand new one might not be so bad, but i don't think they really stand the test of time very well.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Yeah I agree that the stands aren't that nice. I didn't need to cut the lid or back to fit my external though, there was space, maybe it comes down to different pipe sizes. I have an EX1200 on my Rio 180.

I bought my tank used with a really dodgy light fixture in there (as the Juwel one had died...another bad point about Juwels!) and I did notice marks on the top of the flaps where the heat from the lights had affected them but thought it was the VERY iffy rig they had put together. I am planning on buying new flaps for it because these are kind of marked up and faded but they only cost, at the most, £30 for the pair but can also be purchased separately.

I bet the light bar dying on these is the other thing you couldn't think of! It was just under £80 for me to buy a new one, but that included the T5 bulbs.

 

[Tizer]

£80? jeez

I sold my 240 for £105, tank, stand, lights, filter(fluval 305)

 

[dbanner]

thank you for all the replys very helpful.. would like to see pictures of peoples tanks to get ideas on how to scape the 400

Edit: Picking the tank up this evening!.. will post some picture up.

This is mine... Looks similar now, only real difference is I have an external heater instead of the 2 internals

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

wow - that's a biggun!

 

[dbanner]

New type Rio 400 (450 litres instead of the older with 400 litres)

151x51x66cm

 

[KkAaNnEe]

I don't think the style comes into it much in my opinion, I don't really like the juwel or fluval styles, but fluval has the edge on tanks like the profile and osaka (discontinued) also doesn't the roma only go to 240litres? No options for a bigger tank there

Never had a roma so can't comment but I've had two juwels and I would go for another, that's for sure.

One thing I do agree on is the Juwel hoods are UTTER CRAP. Seriously, its not even a hood! two flimsy bits of plastic eh

 

[Benakaben]

I picked up a second had Rio 400, with cabinet external filter bog wood heaters lighting etc, for £150, brilliant tanks i think i defiantly got a bargain

 

[super-MAGuire]

Yeah I agree that the stands aren't that nice. I didn't need to cut the lid or back to fit my external though, there was space, maybe it comes down to different pipe sizes. I have an EX1200 on my Rio 180.

I bought my tank used with a really dodgy light fixture in there (as the Juwel one had died...another bad point about Juwels!) and I did notice marks on the top of the flaps where the heat from the lights had affected them but thought it was the VERY iffy rig they had put together. I am planning on buying new flaps for it because these are kind of marked up and faded but they only cost, at the most, £30 for the pair but can also be purchased separately.

I bet the light bar dying on these is the other thing you couldn't think of! It was just under £80 for me to buy a new one, but that included the T5 bulbs.

The flaps... clean them with boiling water and scrub... then on the upper side, spareingly use back to black like you get for your car trims. Allow do dry completely, eg 24 hours, rinse with boiling water again... should be like new unless their scratched to bits.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

You're a star! Thanks for the tip!

 

[TropicalJuwel]

Would have to agree with most posts on roma vs rio having owned both but there are some down sides to the roma's as well.

The doors stick over time as they use the spring loaded catches so you have to push harder and harder to open doors unless you replace them, doors also rub when opening the (same as the rio though) and only go upto 240 litres. On the plus side I didnt have any problems with the roma in the 2 years I had mine, lights filter heater all as good as new when sold, no problems with the glass or leaks. Look better than the rio as you can change colours to suit you.

Reason I changed to juwel was the size they go upto unless I wanted to pay a fortune for the fluval profile which was new at the time. I personally dont think the rio looks that bad except the cheep lids, which you only realise when opening them, your mates dont open lids so they dont know. My main gripe with the rio is the big horrible filter box, that looks ugly. Can remove if you want but I decided to run that as well as an external.