# upgrade to juwel internal filter powerhead



## davideyre

i have an old juwel rio125 tank, the internal filter has a 204 powerhead, rated at 400lph. 

i know the ideal might be an external filter, but has anyone upgraded the powerhead in their internal juwel filter? i know the new 600lph and 1000lph powerheads can be attached (with the help of a new pump adaptor), but would this actually help the distribution of flow around the tank?

(if anyone has a used juwel powerhead they want to flog please feel free to pm me).

thanks.


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## Ed Seeley

George upgraded the pump in his Rio before he removed the internal filter and replaced it with an external.

According to the Juwel website you can use the 600 and 1000 impellor in the 400 pump, I assume upping the flow.  You may want to contact Juwel and ask them as that could save you a fair bit of money if you can just replace the impellor.

With mine I added a flow pump at the other end of the tank to improve the water circulation and that's working great.


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## davideyre

thanks, have emailed juwel about just upgrading the impellar.


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## ceg4048

Hi,
    It depends on what your intent with the tank is. If you'll run it as low tech then this will definitely help assuming, as Ed says, that the connections can be made. In my opinion, if it's for a high tech tank, then I suspect this is only a middling solution since the bio-filtering capacity may only be marginally improved. I could be wrong about this though because I haven't any info which compares bio-filtration efficiency versus flow rate with the surface area of the filter media held constant. Bigger filters have two advantages - throughput for better flow/nutrient distribution and larger surface area for greater bacterial population, so this is always the preferred solution.

Cheers,


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## Ed Seeley

One paper I read (a few years ago mind you) reckoned that the biggest factors in bacterial biofilm growth was to provide a range of surfaces with varying flow rates (for a range of microorganisms to thrive), high oxygen levels and, perhaps most importantly, the amount of nutrition for them!
Having a huge filter can feel like you're safe with huge amounts of media, but the bacteria will only grow to utilise the nutrients provided.  I think the main benefit of a larger filter is the rate of getting the nutrition and oxygen loaded water to the bacteria and the good flow ensures that any physical debris ends up in the filter where it will break down rather than in the tank.  My Ehiem 2128 on another tank only has media in 2 of the three baskets and does a great job on an overstocked tank.

I have replaced the bottom half of the foam pieces in my Juwel filter with Sintered glass media as it provides a high surface area with a range of flow rates including anaerobic and anoxic areas.  I think this will do a great job on my tank, based on past experience using sintered glass media.

In the same vein, one of the latest Koi filter media is basically a version of a water processing media used for years in industry.  It is an open plastic media of a small size that is fluidised by using lots of air pumped through.  The inside areas provide calmer water for certain microorganisms while the contoured outsides provide high flow areas for others.  I'm switching my koi pond over to this media soon and I have some sintered glass media in the trickle filter too.

Edit:  Sorry forgot to add another important factor - contact time.  A large filter will allow the water to dwell longer relatively speaking for the same flow rate and is a factor too.


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## johnny70

sorry to jump in but, Ed how do you keep the sintered glass in the filter, media bags??????? if so does the bag not get clogged up?

Cheers,
JOHNNY


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## Ed Seeley

johnny70 said:
			
		

> sorry to jump in but, Ed how do you keep the sintered glass in the filter, media bags??????? if so does the bag not get clogged up?
> 
> Cheers,
> JOHNNY



I've strung the pieces onto fishing line!  They're all connected into one mass now so I can easily lift them out with the lower 'cradle' that is meant to hold the bottom set of foam if i need to.  It's an old trick for pond media like flocor.  At present there's very little debris in the botom of the filter.  I gave it a good clean Saturday and the foams were pretty filthy but the media underneath wasn't too bad; I just syphoned off what was there.  I think coarse media bags would be fine and you could just lift them out and rinse every few weeks.


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## johnny70

excellent idea mate  

Thanks for the reply

JOHNNY


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## davideyre

in case anyone in future is interested, heard back from juwel - cannot use the new impeller with my old powerhead.


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## Ed Seeley

davideyre said:
			
		

> in case anyone in future is interested, heard back from juwel - cannot use the new impeller with my old powerhead.



That's interesting!  They need to update their web pages then, especially this one! http://www.juwel-aquarium.de/en/impeller_sets235.htm


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## davideyre

yeah i saw that page too, i think it is because my pump is older than the current series.

i have the rather unintuitively named 204 pump (rated at 400lph).

the new pump series 400/600/1000 (rated at the same lph) might work with the 1000 impeller, per the website.


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## davideyre

Ed, what sintered glass media did you use?

I have been looking at eheim's EHFISUBSTRAT, but as I think it seems to come in a gravel form is not going to string onto any fishing line! sorry to be a bit clueless, are fluval biomax rings sintered glass? is there another sort you'd recommend?

Thanks.


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## Ed Seeley

Not sure about the Fluval media but I used JBL Sintomec bought from AE.  It's like a chunky version of the original Siporax I still have running in some filters 15 years later!


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## san-ho-zay

davideyre said:
			
		

> the new pump series 400/600/1000 (rated at the same lph) might work with the 1000 impeller, per the website.


Sorry to drag this old thread up but I've been looking into this idea for a Rio 125 (same principle applies to a Rio 180 as it has the same pump set). 

The reply I got from Juwel was:



> You are correct in your statement by changing the 600 impellor for a 1000 impellor you will increase the flow rate of
> the filter.


I'm going to give this a try, i.e. replace the impellor in the 600lph pump with the 1000lph version. It's about a Â£15 upgrade compared to Â£30 for the whole pump. Not as good as an external I know, but worth a go.


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## LondonDragon

I have upgraded my Juwel 125 Rio pump to 1000lph last month, what a difference, I would recommend it.
Brought it cheap on ebay too for Â£23


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## san-ho-zay

I know - that's where I got the idea from!  

Cheapest pump I can find on eBay at the moment is about Â£28 delivered.

I'll probably copy you even further and add a Hydor Koralia Nano too. Do you reckon that's the right size for the 125? I tried a Seio 970 litre/hour but had to send it back because it was faulty. Never really got a good idea of what the flow was like.


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## Stu Worrall

ive also been thinking of getting a nano to blow into the quiet corners of my Rio125.  Ive currently got a Sera 900lph external via a spraybar but it doesnt get every part of the tank as far as I can see.


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## LondonDragon

san-ho-zay said:
			
		

> Hydor Koralia Nano too. Do you reckon that's the right size for the 125?


It blows the CO2 bubbles from one side of the tank to the other, anything higher would be too much flow I reckon!


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## Fred Dulley

LondonDragon said:
			
		

> I have upgraded my Juwel 125 Rio pump to 1000lph last month, what a difference, I would recommend it.



Should be able to back you up on that soon. Juwel 1000lph pump is on it's way to me!


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## Wilis

Hi, I upgraded the internal filter power head in my vision 180, as well as adding an external of course, using a hydor power head, these fit perfectly with the plastic adapter on the bottom from the juwel unit and come in a variety of sizes which are all more powerful than the juwel range-i'll dig out the box & check which ones they are exactly & post it here
Regards
Will


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## san-ho-zay

Just my update on this. I replaced the impellor with the 1000 and it makes a big difference. I can't say whether it's as much difference as replacing the whole pump but I'm pleased with the result. I've added a Koralia Nano too, but even without that the new impellor was moving the plants in the troublesome corner in front of the filter box, which the old one wasn't doing.


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## IdealRhys

Hi,

I have also just changed my impellor to the 1000 type.

And confirm an immediate difference.  All plants move gently in the tank.  Fish and Amanos took a while to get used to it. But all OK now. And since replacing the impellor the tank remains almost crystal clear all week i.e. less maintenance. 

Also since dosing ferts since then plant growth has exploded.

Really happy .

Thanks for the advice


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