New fish tank question (Juwel 180)

[Shadowfax]

Hi, I have just upgraded to a new Juwel Vision 180L tank. I originally had a very small tropical tank that had an annoying under gravel filter. Anyway I have a couple of small question I hope you experts can answer:

1.) How many fish would you estimate me having?
2.) Real plants or plastic and why?
3.) How often would you do a water change?

Thanks

Andy

 

[BettaMomma]

How many US gallons is that?
(we darn americans!)

 

[Shadowfax]

whoops sorry mate, it's 47.5 gallons.

 

[SarahBravo]

Depends on the size of the fish - I plugged the measurements for my juwel 180 into the calculator and it came up with this:

MEASUREMENTS
width =101 cm / 39.76”
depth = 41 cm / 16.14”
height = 50 cm / 19.69
Volume = 180 litres / 45 UK Gallons / 54.7 US Gallons


REQUIREMENTS
136 watts of heat
200W of light for medium/bright plants
136cm / 53.48” of fish

so 53" of fish max once fully matured etc.

Re plants, I'd always go with live, but that's just me. You'll have to pick them really carefully because the Juwel lights suck!!! (So why did i buy 4 juwel tanks? i dunno!!) So either low-light plants or upgrade the lights.

Re water changes, I try to do 25-30% once a week, but that probably averages at once every 10 days if I'm truthful!

Good luck with the new tank, i love my juwel 180, enjoy!!!

Sarah

 

[Shadowfax]

Great another Juwel tank man. I have a question then, as I'm new to this filter system, all the filter sponges are kinda "locked" in but the top white filte just rests inside ontop - is this right?

By the way my tank is really bright, I don't have to have any lights on in my living room due to this, is this too bright?

Thanks again mate

Andy

 

[BettaMomma]

I would suggest that if you're going ot have live plants, you switch the bulbs that came with the tank to compact flourescents. Your plants will do a WHOLE lot better. Those lights will be ten times brighter and more of a blue light than a yellow light. I switched mine out in my 10G tank and the plants are doing fabulously. (except the ones that aren't supposed to be underwater in an aquarium, but that's not my fault) heh heh

Live plants are the greatest. The fish love them, they look great, they're just all around good. They also help oxygenate and take out bad stuff from the water.

And the number of fish you could have in there really depends on what kind of fish you want. do you have anything specific that you're thinking of for ideas, fishwise to start with?

 

[Shadowfax]

Thanks, live plants it is then. At the moment I have 10 Tetra's of different types, 2 Albino Corycats, 2 Pleco's. I just love the small inch size fish's, but with that tank maybe I could get a few bigger fish in there....

What's the maintenance on live plants if any?

Also the 2 flourescents are 1 x 25watts warm white and 1 x 25watts cool white

 

[Nuttygal! :0)]

Hiya Shadowfax! Live plants are actually really easy to take care of. Once they're planted, I plop a plant food tablet into the tank once every 3 months! That's all I do with my plants, and they're fine! Some require special lighting, but I'm not really sure about these ones. I don't really know much about plants, I just see one I like, buy it, plant it, and feed them!

 

[BettaMomma]

Moneywort is nearly impossible to kill, just FYI.
and if you're like me, you need kill-less stuff in your tank!!

 

[Bloo]

I've had my vision 180 for a couple of years now and it's doing great and looking great too (well I think so at least ) ! See my sig for the fish I have in mine. Pic below that I just took - sorry don't have the focus etc. quite right but it was just a quick snap.
All fish are doing very well and I don't have any territorial problems. I even have the fish I originally cycled with ! (which I did not really expect). I know the rainbows can get much bigger, but they haven't grown that much and I'll cross the bridge when it comes to it.
The white bit of the filter you are talking about, should rest right on top of the carbon square and also be "pinned" down - not floating around. I clean mine about once every 7 to 10 days and as long as I keep on top of it, it all goes very smoothly. Due to my stock levels though, I cannot let it slip beyond that.
As you cannot remove this whole filtration system to clean it, I recommend you do the following when doing your water change. If using a plastic siphon (Hoover)system, also stick the plastic pipe into the 3 holes at the back of the filter (the side that is against the back of the tank) and suck out the debris there - it can build up over time and clog up your filter. Something I only discovered myself a few months ago !!! Hope that makes sense
Good luck and enjoy !

 

[Shadowfax]

You guys are most helpful, I really appreciate this. Just one very embarrassing thing I just noticed, I was thinking how the hell have you “pinned” down that white filter mines just too big and won’t fit, then I noticed I had 3 stuck together which have been in 3 days flaoting about. The 2 I removed I take it they are useless or can I dry them out and re-use, they are 3 days old and look clean (ish).

 

[Shadowfax]

WOW that's a cool tank, it looks really nice


Have you installed extra bubbles anywhere?

 

[Bloo]

Yeah I have a long aeration stick that hangs down the side of the filter and shoots the bubbles up so that the filter outlet disperses the extra bubbles through the tank. You can just about notice it.
Haha don't worry about that mistake you made with the white filter bit - exactly the same thing happened to me the first time - I completely forgot about it !
I don't have many plants at the moment - the ones in the front bit of the pic are real and partly attached to the wood. I only have on small plastic plant on the back left. In the pic (front middle) I also have a stick with some cucumber attached to it - it's not a strange plant !

 

[Shadowfax]

I have a toube out the side with part of it out the top which grabs the air, think I will get one to add to the bottom of the tank so bubbles come out of the gravel.

What size sponges do I need to buy, they come in 3 sizes, compact, standard or jumbo?

 

[guppy_man]

hi i got a tank im not sure what gal it is lol ill take a pic and will some 1 tell me what gal it is plz thanx ill get the pic in about 5 mins