Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
Jewel Rio Filter
- Didihno (Didihno)
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I just don't like the look of the built in filter and heater system.
It looks fiddly and flimsy and the enclosure is pretty big.
Has anyone experience with these and is it worth it to get maybe a fluval 3(or two) to replace the whole setup?
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- Pablo (Pablo -)
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I replaced the filter of my Trigon 190 for a Fluval 305
It's very worthy not only because of the space but also the water quality improve considerably but go for 305, the 205 will not be good enough

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- Didihno (Didihno)
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I have a Fluval 2 in my 10g tank and its working really well so far.Hi Didihno,
I replaced the filter of my Trigon 190 for a Fluval 305
It's very worthy not only because of the space but also the water quality improve considerably but go for 305, the 205 will not be good enough
Question is, is one Fluval 3(05) good enough for such a big tank?
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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Check out the Tetratec range when looking at the Fluvals.
Daragh
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- Pablo (Pablo -)
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It good up to 300 litres tanks. :wink:
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- lampeye (lampeye)
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lampeye
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- lampeye (lampeye)
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This link might be some help!
How to remove an internal filter box
lampeye
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- Processor (Niall O'Leary)
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I do find that the Juwel collects more debris from the water than the external and somtimes wonder is the external only doing about 10% of the work. That's the impression I get when I'm doing the filter maintenance anyway.
I'd say the tank will function quite well with it's own brand filter and let's face it they sell around the world with no probs. If Santa comes this year with a Trigon or something nice I would get a smaller external only as an emergency backup.
I suppose if you can afford it then go for it but if not then fiddly and flimsy it isn't and it works.
Processor.
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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Thanks all.
Great link for the filter removal.
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- lampeye (lampeye)
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lampeye
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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I have no idea.what are you going to stock ut with?
The wife wants some Angels.
So I'm thinking about a 'beginner' cichlid tank, nothing too crazy.
I need to do some reading up on good mixes.
Got the tank moved into its corner and scrubbed it down.
Then I took a flat piece of metal (a Tee square) and prised off the filter enclosure like that article said (I didn't have a knife but the tee worked just fine). Very happy with the results, got to clean the tank 100% instead of leaving lots of shitty dirt behind the filter. Really filthy. Had to lightly scrub the glass to get the dirt and calcium deposits off.
Shiny clean now and full of water.
Bought a Fluval 4 plus (internal) off ebay for €40 delivered.
Don't know if I'll have it till after the holidays though, so I might have to start the cycle with my Fluval 2, or just wait. Either way I'm going to transfer some cycled filter medium into the new one to kick start a colony.
Should work well and I'll pick up a couple of zebra danios or a couple of mollies for cycling.
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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Get yourself an external as soon as possible. The fluval externals are super.
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- lampeye (lampeye)
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lampeye
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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I am gradually fasing my internal out. External is running 2 months.Removing pads from internal 1 at a time each month.
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- Peter OB (Peter O'Brien)
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I have a Fluval canister running with the Internal, no problems to date.
Its also good as when you can stagger the cleaning of filters, i.e clean the Internal in January, External in February etc...etc...
Smoke me a Kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast.
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- monty (monty)
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Cheers,
Monty
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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The internal is history and I'm glad I did it, don't care how much space for bacteria there is, the enclosure is huge and I've heard too many stories about dissapearing fish. Plus it was caked in mineral deposits, impossible to clean behind and just plain ugly.
Moving on, I'll set up with two smaller internals and see how it goes.
I'll put a big external on my wishlist for next year sometime.
Thanks guys.
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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I don't know about the Fuval 405 but I once had a 404 and it was a piece of bad design. After a wile I found it very hard to get an airtight seal on the filter after cleaning. Very badly done. I have no idea if the 05 range has a better sealing system. I'd go for a Eheim or one of the knock offs. I bought one of them on ebay.
I have a 405 and it is excellent IMO

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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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I never had the old system so I cannot comment.
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