replacement lights for rio 180

[hellohefalump]

I just gave my neglected Juwel Rio 180 to my neighbour. She's going to turn it into a lovely planted tank! I'm very excited because I'm going to get involved with the planting/fish choices etc - but she'll be doing the water changes!

The thing is, the light unit is broken so she needs to replace it. It's full of water, you can hear the water inside it when you move it.

I know Juwel do a high-lite system with T5s because I have it on my rio 400. I think I heard somewhere interpet also make a bar that fits on a Juwel tank? Does anyone know what I'm thinking of? Is it any good? How does it compare with the Juwel unit?

Also, from experience I know the Juwel T5 lights aren't that great. They're very yellow. I know arcadia are doing lights that fit Juwel tanks - off the top of my head I think they're calling it the 'plant pro' bulb? Is that correct?

A luminare over the tank isn't really an option because she has a small son who will put things in it.

What do you all think?

 

[Luketendo]

For the cheapest solution you want to check out the Hagen Glo-T5HO Luminaires.

You can get 2 x 39w for £50 on some sites without bulbs. Then you can choose any regular 39W T5 bulb you like!

 

[Steve Smith]

Arcadia do an I-Bar which is a direct replacement for the Juwel tanks. Even takes the Juwel tank flaps. Other than that, leave the old light unit in and retrofit a double light setup in there like the one above Just requires a few holes drilling into the flaps, mounting some reflectors and clips and that's about it

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh retro fitting it easy and probably a bit cheaper, but it depends how they want it to 'look' as its not the most aesthetically pleasing of solutions.

Sam