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Removing the rim on the Juwel Rio 300

Skatersav

Member
Joined
22 Nov 2011
Messages
86
Hi, I'm sitting in my living room staring at my Juwel Rio 300 and can't help but feel it would look much better without the faux wood rim round the top. That got me thinking about opening the top up, hanging some awesome industrial style lights down from the ceiling to light the tank, and having loads of AWESOME plants growing out the top. It's got me really excited! Amazing what will do that these days...

I guess it starts from understanding whether I can remove that rim and whether I need to replace the rim with some other structure to support the tank's rigidity. The two plastic support straps that stretch across from front to back don't look like they do much - they aren't really very rigid - so maybe I don't need any replacement.

Does anyone have any experience of removing these rims?

Ta

Sav
 
I could well be wrong but does that rim not form part of the mechanical support for strength and stability ?
 
I think you are probably right. I'm thinking I could probably replace it with some strips of glass around the edge, attached with silicon and some cross braces... Maybe not...
 
add in some glass brace bars + front and rear full length lips for the brace bars and you can take the lid off no problems
 
Cool. thanks. I take it I just attach using silicon? Would I be able to leave any water in the tank while I do this? Say 1/3 of the water?
 
i wouldn't recommend leaving any water in it and make sure your full length bars and cross braces are quite thick glass and put the plastic rim back on after siliconing on the new bits of glass too as it'll help it keep its shape until the silicone has set (24 hours or more)

make sure you use 100% pure silicone though or aquarium safe I just got a few tubes of http://www.ffx.co.uk/tools/product/Aqua ... 9%20AQUATR as I have my 6 footer to strip and reseal before I set it back up and i've got a couple of 3 foot breeding tanks to make for a friend too
 
So i've ordered that silcon as recommended. Thanks for the tip. I'm going to speak to Greg the Wise in ADC (awesome shop on Great Portland Street in London) at the weekend and see what he recommends for a new lighting unit. I'm thinking I may as well try and fab something up myself to make use of the 4 T5 bulbs I'm using at the moment... BUt, then again, it could look quite cool with one or two big industrial lights, like this:

Industrial+Lights.jpg
(I've taken this image off http://olgagrandascott.blogspot.com).

Would need to think about what lighting type to use in it them though. I reckon I could get something to work.

Will need to speak to a glass cutter as well... My wife is going to have another baby when I tell her about my grand plans - I'm not exactly Britain's answer to McGuyver...
 
those lights look ace.

stick some halogen bulbs in and you'll be fine (or for the money concious go LED) you could hide alot of bulbs in those covers.
 
I'm glad you're going to put in some glass brace bars as they are needed. I had a rio 300 and at first it didn't have the brace bars attached. I didn't think it needed them. Then when we moved the tank (full) one time we noticed the front bowed out!! :wideyed: Needless to say we put the bars on!! It had been braceless for about a year so might have been okay, but I think I was very lucky not to have a cracked tank.

Viv
 
So, a weekend later and I'm not really any further on. I have been doing some thinking though... I think it might be quite cool to make the bracing out of thick perspex. The benefit to this would be that I could make the entire structure out of one piece of material which might look quite smart - getting a piece of glass made as per the below diagram is seemingly impossible (it must be possible, but I can't find anyone who'll do it). Perspex would seem to be as strong (actually stronger) than glass under tension so I reckon it would be fine from that perspective. The only question is whether it's possible to bond acrylic (perspex is a type of acrylic) to glass and it turns out you can't do it very effectively with aquarium silicone sealant. Boo.

Fortunately, the clever chaps at the glue factory have taken some time off from melting down horses to do some creative cogitating. No doubt predicting Skatersav's grand plans and subsequent predicament, they have come up with at least two solutions. Bostik Titan Bond Plus and Evo-Tech TA431. The former cures to an off-white colour which simply won't do, but the latter is apparently clear and colourless - it basically sounds like super glue.

I can already hear the cacophony of concerns from my fellow UKAPS enthusiasts: SURELY THE PROCESS WILL TOXIFY YOUR FISH. Well... perhaps. And so my own cogitating continues while I mull over my options.

I sent the following drawings off to a guy who fabs up perspex stuff in London to get a quote:

aquariumrimdesign.jpg


And I thought I'd see what a lid would cost while I was at it:

aquariumrimdesign2.jpg


I'm now working on the lighting solution while I wait for a quote on the above.
 
29879.jpg


These can fit GU10 bulbs and you can get 6500k 11W LED bulbs in a GU10 fitting. I reckon 3 of those will do the job as it should give around 150watts of equivalent light. This is for a Juwel Rio 300 which I think is 350litres and about 60cm deep.

You can move the little brace up the wires so that the lights point directly downwards.

The alternative to the 11w LEDs is to go with three 50w or 75w halogens, but I've read these tend to be warmer light - closer to 3000k?. That might look nicer in the room (this is basically going to be hanging down in the living room as my tank is in the centre of the room (i'll take some photos tonight)) but I understand that it won't be that great for the plants. The plants will have no other source of light.

If anyone has any thoughts on this, please feel free to interject before I make what will no doubt be another expensive mistake... :?
 
Nearly £400 for the perspex! Puke! £175 for the structure and the rest for the lid. Need to shop around or revert to glass strips.
 
I don't know what you'd do about the structure but you get a sheet of perspex from your DIY store for the lid. They'd even cut to size for you if you've got one with a cutting service.

I've had luck with 'cutting' thin perspex sheets by scoring them with a stanley knife, then placing something hard along the score and bending the rest up. Snaps clean as long as you keep the pressure even along the scored edge. Don't know if it would work on thicker sheets but I see no reason why not. This is how I made sliders for my bettas little tank.

Viv
 
I will be watching this thread with interest Skatersav. I had asked the same question a while back regarding removing the vile trim on my Rio180.
After recieving good advice and comforting words of wisdom from members I still havn`t had the balls to go ahead and do it. I will await your attempt at the modification, and let you play Guinea Pig. :lol:
 
jigsaws or circular saws both cut perspex just fine trick is to move it fast and cut it with the plastic protection on then just use wet and dry on the edges to smooth them out again
 
bandsaws and recips will do it too :) as will a good old hacksaw if you're lacking power tools :)

use a fine a toothed blade as you can possibly find for a cleaner cut. larger teeth blades can make a mess on first cut but will be fine once moving
 
I promised some photos. These are obviously pretty terrible but they give you an idea of what's going on. The tank isn't as brightly lit as the photos would indicate.

photo2fc.jpg

photo3sl.jpg


Very light on the bio load right now but it's going to stay that way until I finish the lighting and lid issue.

There is some limited progress on the lighting side and I am hoping I will have a meaningful update on things by the end of the weekend. Thanks for all the sage advice.

S
 
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