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Jewel Rio 180 internal filter flow rate

alan'67

alan'67

Member
Joined
30 Nov 2015
Messages
43
Location
Essex
Hello everyone,this is my first post on this excellent forum but i'd be grateful for any advice if at all possible.I have ordered the above tank which I hope to grow lush and healthy plants!.
But i also dream of winning the lottery & I'm beginning to think i've got more chance of that after reading tutorials about the importance of flow in the planted aquarium & the need for a filter with a high (x 10) turnover.I wish i'd read that before ordering the tank.The rio 180 pump appears to have a output of 600 L/H which even by my poor standard of maths is a LOT less than the desired x10 ratio!.Have I made a cock-up with this choice of tank?.Maybe the offer of a free cabinet was to good to be true?.It could be a case that I have to check around the back of the sofa for loose change & buy an external canister filter but if anyone can give a honest opinion of the internal pump & my chances of success with it and plants I'd be very grateful..........thanks.
 
I recently bought a new Rio 180 and to be honest the first thing I did was cut out the internal filter.
It's not just the relatively poor flow,they are bulky,take up a lot of room and build up algae where they are stuck to the glass.
Currently I run a Fluval 306 external which seems to be perfect for the job although I'm really on the low tech side of things but dosing "liquid" carbon.
The biggest problem I've found is the light unit which is way too powerful and you cannot remove one tube initially as the unit won't work like that :mad:
It comes fitted with the Hi Lite "Day" tubes which I found made everything look very stark and washed out so I've changed one tube to the "Colour" which is a lot better although I may try replacing the other "Day" one with a "Nature" to see what that combo is like.
I would suggest getting a lot of floating plants to start with,as I did,to diffuse the light and stick to no more than 5-6 hours :)
 
I have a Juwel Vision 180, still with its 600l/hr internal filter BUT with and external JBLe1501 and spray bar giving 1400l/hr flow.

You can quite easily reduce the light brightness by plastic sheets, foil rings around the tubes etc. I would suggest you start at 1/4-1/2 brightness until you get CO2 flow and levels sorted or else you will just vaporise your plants.

You will need something like this in terms of flow.
 
Thanks for the info folks,its greatfully recieved.Apart from the pump & light arrangement the basic tank seams fine! :lol: Even if the standard flow rate was sufficient, the single pipe outlet will never offer the same distribution as the above spray bar arrangement and that's even before considering Co2.I should have expected the pictures of lush plant growth on the manufacturers web site were to good to be true.I guess I'll have to re-think the budget a little bit!.

But I can't help but wonder why they don't also offer a basic tank without any filter internals & an option to choose you're own lighting tubes in the first place?.
 
Thanks stu for the welcome & the link, it's packed with very helpful info and has put my mind at rest somewhat!.

There is so much information on this forum from members who have quite literally been there and done that, it means for a newbie like myself, a lot of time, money & hours of frustration saved.

Once again, many thanks folks for your help.
 
Hi,

This is my first post here. I used to have the RIO125, and now I both RIO180 and RIO240 running. Allow me to share my experience in your thread.

First of all, the 10x circulation flow rule is a rule of thumb for total ‘rated’ circulation flowrate in the tank. A lot of external filter cannot achieve its rated flow when filled with bio-media and due to installation settings (inlet strainer, suction and discharge tubing length and angle, use with spraybar all incur pressure drop), and with filtrate build up, an external filter pump rated at 1000 L/hr may only give 500-600 L/hr actual flow.

Juwel’s filter design is different where the suction and discharge point are both in tank without any pressure drop due to tubings. Older filter boxes also takes some flow from the filter back-chamber, so even if filtrate build up, the flow from back chamber compensates and the total flow is not significantly affected.

Juwel’s filter pump default discharge is back-right to back-left about 2 inches under the water surface. This is not ideal as the front of the tank gets little circulation flow and there is no surface movement. It is recommended that you make use of the diagonal extension and point the discharge flow upwards from back-right to the middle of the tank to create flow throughout the tank and the surface movement created is similar to that of lily pipe’s. This creates a flow pattern that circulates water from back right to middle-top to front left bottom. With RIO180’s default 600 L/hr pump, I see my crypts swaying about at the front level at substrate level.

Next if you are going high-tech, you need to think about where your CO2 discharge point is. I think one possible location is bottom right-back near the filter entry point where water get sucked into the filter back chamber. Second option is to install your CO2 discharge point at the front left.

For me, I have to use chillers for both RIO180 and RIO240, hence I have to have external filter just to drive water to the chillers. My RIO180 has Eheim 2217 and my RIO240 has an JBL e1501. In these two tanks, I installed the external filter suction points literally inside the back-chamber of the Juwel filter, so the suction basket is not visible. I installed the discharge points at the back-left (about middle water level) where I have the CO2 discharge point there too). The discharge flow is point directly across the tank from back-left to back-right. This helps me to create a circular flow pattern anti-clockwise if you look from the front of the tank. I do back-left to back-right blowing of CO2 because I don’t like the CO2 mist coming to the front of the tank (makes the tank visually too busy), remembering my aim is to increase the CO2 contact time with water to increase the amount of CO2 dissolved.

In both my tanks, the external filters are my main bio-filtration and I view the Juwel filter as my main mechanical filter and polisher. Note that the stock sponge from the Juwel is not very effective when comparing against filter floss. So I have two layers of floss and I wash the top layer very often to get rid of all the trapped debris, after that I have Purigen, and followed by some bio rings underneath.

Personally I hate opening canister filter to clean, so I like the Juwel’s implementation a lot and this is also the reason I keep going back to Juwel for my fish tanks. The maintenance is just so easy.

Cheers,

Sifuzi
 
IMG_0173.JPG
Here is my RIO180, 8 months after setup.
 
Have this tank and its a good choice for planted, the light unit is good enough to grow almost anything! CO2 outlet was below the outlet from the filter which pushed it around the tank and then on the otherside i had a powerhead that pushed it back along the front of the tank - created a kind of 'whirlpool' effect and gave good flow at the same time. You can upgrade the pump head in the filter to take it above 600 l/ph if you want aswell!

Good luck!
 
sifuzi said:
View attachment 78926 Here is my RIO180, 8 months after setup.
Click to expand...

That's a beautiful tank sifuzi,you must be proud of it.Thank you for your post & Davewllms as well,which gave me much encouragement.If I can't grow plants in this tank then it won't be the tank's fault!.I have just taken delivery of the tank which is now sitting in my living room.I will look into the options that I now have to maximise flow throught the tank but, I guess I'll have to wait a while.
I didn't really want to buy the tank right now with all the expense of xmas but I didn't want to miss out on the special offer either!.

Thanks for all your help everyone.
 
I have a Juwel Vision 260 that came with the 1500 l/ph and I seem to have TOO MUCH flow. Unless the outlet is directed right at the back wall all the substrate is kicked up really badly and the flow is too strong for the fish to swim in
 
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