Ready 2 but hardware, opinions greatly valued

[ahkiu]

hardware? i make it sound like a pc
sitting in front of my computer for too long i think

ok, i've been window shopping and have decided that a "juwel starter tank" will suit my needs. e.g complete set up and looks quite smart

As feargal kindly pointed out, i've decided to go as big as possible, tank wise and narrowed it down to the following contenders

dimensions in cm

Lido 100 black (w55xd41xh50) + stand~ 100 litres for 206 pounds


rekford 70 (w61xd31xh46) +stand ~70litres for 132 pounds
rekford 96 (w81xd36xh46) +stand ~96 litres for 150 pounds

200 pounds is about the top of my budget for just the tank. I'm more in favour of the Lido 100 because of it's dimensions, being more compact width wise which will mean it fits in my room more easily. Also the filter it comes with is a newer model with a detachable filter basket and being taller i can add a deeper layer of grvel/sand etc since i want to plant the tank quite a lot. But the lido 100 is quite narrow. Would that be a problem for the fish? I guess they would prefer more room to swim in !

fish wise (subject to change :laugh: ) i pretty much want just a big a shoal of some tetra's of one sort or another that it can support plus one or 2 bottom dwellers, including a bushy nosed plec and a shrimp or two. The tank will be heavily planted also.


But whichever tank i get, can anyone tell me if the filter system that comes supplied is adequate? innitially when i was thinking of going separate i was going to buy a eheim internal model. Should i think about adding an additional filter? The juwel filter for the lido 100 is rated at 400lph so 4 times tank circulation, but the actual filter volume is quite small really.

Also back to the filter, i notice, that the juwel system uses an activated carbon filter layer. where as i had in mind to make the tank as much like a mini eco system as possible, with natural biological filtration. is this feasable or should i stick with the activated carbon as well ?


sorry ! i've asked thousands of questions @_@ but the scary thing is i have more ! :laugh: such on best type of substrate for the plants in the tank and fish compatability but hopefully i'll be able to answer those myself with more reasearch and when i reach that stage in setting up my own tank

thx for reading people

 

[ahkiu]

oops.... wanted to ask another question.

what do people think of the price? they seem pretty much the same in the all the places i've seen. A little cheaper perhaps but not too much. These are from the juwel website where i am intending to purchase from. As i'm really quite busy with work at the moment and they do delivery for 24 pounds.

 

[mrV]

Lido? http/www.juwel-aquarium.de/int/index.html There is no any "lido", but anyway

How many light tubes are in there?

By the way, why do you want to buy design aqurium, if you don't have much to spend money? Have you check other aquarium?

JBLs filter is quite poor. You need to buy another internal filter too (like Eheim 2012) or external if you have enough money.

First you should know water values (pH, GH, temperature), before anyone could suggest any fish into your tank.

bushy nosed plec

Do you mean ancistrus sp. (cf. temmincki). If do, buy only one and rather female than male, bacause females are smaller. Ancistrus sp. is good algae eater. And if you buy any plecos, you need to buy wood from them too.. They need it for their teeth, food or (this may be the reason) for their digestion. Nobody knows it exactly.

Should i think about adding an additional filter?

Yep, like i said above.

... but the actual filter volume is quite small really...

It's always small in internal filter. If you have anough money, you should think about buying external filter.

If you buy another internal filter, then you can wash them separately like 2 weeks/filter 1, 2weeks/filter 2, 2weeks/filter 1...

Internal filter has small filter volume, but they still need lot of space in tank. That's why, you should also think about buyng external filter.

Also back to the filter, i notice, that the juwel system uses an activated carbon filter layer. where as i had in mind to make the tank as much like a mini eco system as possible, with natural biological filtration. is this feasable or should i stick with the activated carbon as well ?

You can't use carbon filter whole time. Carbon filters are only used when for example you have medacite the tank and you need to take rest of the medicine away. And carbon filter works only about 2 weeks...

best type of substrate for the plants in the tank and fish compatabilit

Best type for plants will be 1-3mm diameter gravel. Best type for fish, is sand for most.

If you buy gravel, you need to vacuum it every week and gravel must be rounded from the edges. Otherwise if gravel is sharp, bottom fish will hurt themself and get infection.

If you buy sand, you can fertilize bottom for plants too. You just only need to "break sand up" sometimes with your hand like picking it up and let it sink to back on the bottom. Then sand won't go blocked.

... with more reasearch and when i reach that stage in setting up my own tank

You should go to the nearest library to borrow some good aquarium books.

what do people think of the price?

How much is it?

 

[Feargal]

Hi ahkiu,

I think the ‘lido’ tank you refer to is at this site:

http/www.juwel.co.uk/

I agree with MrV about the filter. I have been told that the Eheim filters are the most reliable.

bushy nosed plec

If you want to find out which Pl*co it is that you are talking about you can check at Planet Catfish in their Cat-e-log. They have pic’s of all the catfish.

As MrV says they do need plenty of wood in the tank! They ‘rasp’ on it.

 

[pete]

You can remove the carbon filter sponges as i have done on all my Juwel tanks (3 in total) but i would strongly suggest adding an extra filter as the standard Juwel ones just cant seem to cope :what:

The lido is a very nice tank (mine are all Rekords, a 96 and 2x 120's) but dont overlook the Rekord 120 as they are a cheaper option than the lido but sadly only come with 1 tube compared to the lido's 2 lol :what:

You cant go wrong with a Juwel so enjoy the buying and setting up experience and may it be the first of many lol :hehe:

 

[pete]

With regards mrv's post about vacuming the gravel every week!!!!!, DONT do this as it will upset the biological balance of bacteria held within the gravel :what: it is a common misconception amoungst fish keepers that they are helping the ecco system by cleaning the gravel every week but in fact it does more harm than good in alot of cases you should only clean gravel when it needs cleaning (when you can see that it needs cleaning) or maybe once a month and even then only clean the top 1/2" or so of the gravel or you wil mix up the various bacteria contained within and get pollution problems so always be careful of gravel cleaning :what:

Sorry to go against you on this one mrv but it is a well known fact amoungst fish keepers that over doing the gravel cleaning causes real problems :what:

 

[pete]

It was just pointed out to me ina P.M that surely my last post refered to only UGF tanks..................im afraid it doesnt just apply to UGF tanks as gravel even in an external filtered tank houses billions of bacteria and if they get mixed up by gravel cleaning they will die and pollute the tank ......its happened to me before and i speak from experience on this one :what:

The bacteria contained in the gravel are specific to certain depths in the gravel so mixing thier levels up causes the problem and unfortunately gravel cleaners just pick up the gravel and chuck it back down any old way so care is needed not to clean the gravel too often and when you do only clean the surface area of it

 

[mrV]

... you should only clean gravel when it needs cleaning ...

Well, my tank needs to be cleaned in every week There is lot of sh*t/food etc in the bottom... I have let the tank to be without vacuuming gravel in 2 weeks, and gravel was real dirty.

I and other hobbyists i know vacuum gravel every weeks or at least once in 2 weeks.

... it does more harm than good...

Well, i have opposite experiences

And when you do it in every week, you can just easily vacuum gravel without causing any harm for plants roots etc...

I haven't either noticed any water values changes (for example no2- going up) after vacuuming.

... only clean the top 1/2" or so of the gravel ...

If you have 2-3" layer on the bottom, how do you get silt away from bottom if you don't put cleaner inside gravel enough?

Sorry to go against you on this one mrv...

It's always welcome

... but it is a well known fact amoungst fish keepers that over doing the gravel cleaning causes real problems.

If it's so well-known fact, why haven' i heard it? Or why haven't i any problems with my aquariums, or my friend hobbyists? I know that excessive washing, like washing filters every week or two, causes harm. But if you keep gravel clean, you don't have to wash aquarium in next 5-10 years.

You must vacuum gravel real "rough" and intensive if you want to vacuum bacteria away...

 

[pete]

Well most of the silty brown stuff you are washing away actually contains the bacteria as they are working on it to break it down and a layer of silt deep in the gravel is actually benificial to plants etc so by washing this away you are doing no good at all to the whole ecco system :what:

As for the point you make that youve never had a problem yet.......well you could walk blindfolded across the M5 for weeks and not get hit by a car or truck but sooner or later it'll happen and with disasterous consequences .......... much the same as over cleaning your gravel

Like i said i speak from experience and i nearly wiped out a whole tanks stock by over cleaning my gravel but now i only clean the gravel in all of my tanks very lightly and infrequently ............... and that includes both the Predator tank and the 6x2x2 which houses Oscar the missus's Red Tail Catfish as well as 3 VERY large Pleco's and a foot long Black Shark and as we all now big fish like this are extremelly messy but i only clean the gravel in there once a month if that and even then i do it very lightly

If you are happy with your gravel cleaning routine then carry on as it obviously works for you (at the moment) but i personaly feel that you are heading for trouble :what:

Arent these debates interesting lmao :laugh: :laugh: :hehe:

 

[Alien Anna]

Hi,
I have a Juwel aquarium (120L corner tank) and it's great. However, I ought to tell you that these kinds of things come up in the second hand market all the time - for a fraction of your budget. People are always getting into this hobby, killing off their fish or realising they take too much work to keep alive, and selling off the lot.

If you don't want the fish they have to sell with their aquarium, they are easy enough to give to your local fish shop (LFS) and then you can re-stock at your leisure, once the tank is properly "cycled" with beneficial bacteria and set-up.

Do consider 2nd hand before forking out that kind of money - you may regret it. For instance, I recently saw a 4ft Juwel aquarium with mahogony-look cupboard stand, built-in 40Wx2 light fittings, built-in Juwel column filter, with additional Eheim external filter, a selection of live plants, numerous fish (including some expensive, rare breeds) and expensive African bogwood - all for 50 quid! And this kind of bargain comes up in the local free-ads papers all the time.

I'm more in favour of the Lido 100 because of it's dimensions, being more compact width wise which will mean it fits in my room more easily. Also the filter it comes with is a newer model with a detachable filter basket and being taller i can add a deeper layer of grvel/sand etc since i want to plant the tank quite a lot.

OTOH, a deeper tank requires much better lighting, unless you are happy to grow only low-light plants, and the number of fish you can safely keep is related to the open surface area, not just the volume, so you can keep fewer fish.

But whichever tank i get, can anyone tell me if the filter system that comes supplied is adequate?

Juwel filters get a bad press, BUT my experience is that they are ineffecient mechanical filters, but (particularly with a fine sponge to replace the carbon sponge) they are superb biological filters. I'm personally more concerned that the water quality is good than the fact that it takes an age to clear debris from the water when you move stuff about. Also, they are very neat and tidy and easy to maintain.

I back mine up with a cheap sponge filter (about 3 quid) run off a 2nd hand air-pump that I got off Ebay for a song (I replaced the diaphragm and it's great), plus an extra air-stone for luck. The sponge is a great little mechanical filter and adequate biological one.

Also back to the filter, i notice, that the juwel system uses an activated carbon filter layer.

It's just a black sponge. You can take it out and replace it with a blue Juwel filter sponge, or a pile of filter-wadding, a spare sponge filter or whatever else you fancy stuffing in there. I find it useful to keep stuff in there for "seeding" new tanks with bacteria. Juwel colums are basically stacks of sponges with a pump stuck in the middle.

with natural biological filtration. is this feasable or should i stick with the activated carbon as well ?

Most of the decent filters on the market use biological filtration (all it means is that you have bacteria growing in there - which will happen with almost any filter media that is kept aerated and "fed" with fish waste). The activated carbon should be kept for removing medications, or if you get a sudden "spike" in ammonia levels or a dozen other reasons why you might want to remove chemicals from your water. I keep mine in the cupboard next to the fish meds! You can use them all the time (many people do), but it seems a bit over-kill to me.

sorry ! i've asked thousands of questions @_@ but the scary thing is i have more !

I'd much rather ask such questions now than try to help save a dozen dying fish and a panicked newbie, as happens far too often. You are doing the right thing researching it.

P.S. No matter how big a tank you buy, it won't be big enough and you'll need another one within 6 months.

 

[ahkiu]

thx for your replies people.


MrV the lido 100 is on the .co.uk juwel website, i thought it was obvious to go there and not the german one, i didn't even know there was a german website by jewel
As for wanting to buy a design aquarium when i don't have the money to spend. well... i would prefer to have a tank that is asthetically pleasing for me as well as just holding the water and i've got to set my budget somewhere for each item. If what i needed would cost more and was worthwhile, then i would invest in it. The lido 100 is 206 pounds. Maybe you didn't see it without the pound sigh but my keyboard is an american layout chinese one so i don't have it..lol

Fish wise, what i mentioned was only a brief idea of what i liked. I would definitely only buy livestock when i have properly researched how suitable they are first. As for the bushy nosed plec i mentioned it was a "ancistrus ranunculus" which apparenlty groves to about 12 cm. It was so late at night when i typed that first msg i couldn't be bothered to find out the proper name for the post @_@

Thx for the good advice on the sex of the first MrV !

all cheers to all the people who mentioned the wood for plecs, i was propsing to feature that in my final tank too ! although because (if i was honest) it was because i think it looks pretty good rather than for the benefit of the fish at first

Filter wise after all the help, i think i will get an additional external filter and use that in conjunction with the supplied one. I do like how the heater is incorporated inside the internal filter of the jewel.


I've always looking for second hand, but so far nothing matching what i like has come up yet. But i might get lucky

 

[Alien Anna]

I've always looking for second hand, but so far nothing matching what i like has come up yet. But i might get lucky

Patience is the key. If I were in your position, I would definitely give myself a few weeks to look around for 2nd hand. If that fails, and you have to buy new, buy the tank locally and everything else via the Internet (unless you do go for Juwel, in which case it's all included). What country are you posting from? Someone can probably recommend the best Internet sites for your area.

Oh, and Juwel are a German company. When I first got it, my Juwel tank still had the German plugs and all the manuals are in German. But you know what they say about German build quality: built to last. The only problem is that I have some nasty scratches on the glass. One day I'll have to do something about that but it doesn't show unless you get up close.

 

[ahkiu]

hi anna

i'm posting from the uk.
juwel is german? i assumed they were UK

thx for the good advice