JUWEL Rio 240 LED Aquarium - 240 Litre - Black

JUWEL Rio 240 LED Aquarium - 240 Litre - Black is JUWEL's Rio 240 aquarium in black, a 240 litre set with the hood, LED lighting and the Bioflow internal filter.

Key Features

• Supplied as a working set: JUWEL build these to go on a cabinet and run, rather than as a bare box of glass. The set covers the tank, the hood with its lighting, the Bioflow internal filter and a heater. Contents do change between model years, so ask us to confirm exactly what is in the carton for this one before you order.
• The shape: The Rio is a straight rectangular tank, which is the shape that gives you the most usable swimming length for the money and the easiest one to light, plant and clean.
• The internal Bioflow filter: It sits in a corner of the tank rather than hanging on the back or under the cabinet. That keeps the plumbing inside the glass with nothing to leak onto your floor, and the media are all JUWEL parts we stock separately.
• 240 litres nominal: The number in the name is the nominal volume. Rock, substrate and the filter box all take some of it, so the actual water volume is lower, which matters when you are dosing anything by the litre.
• LED rather than fluorescent: The LED version costs more up front and then stops costing you a set of tubes every year. It also runs cooler, which is worth more here than it is in Europe.

What It Weighs When It Is Full

• Water weighs a kilogram a litre, so a 240 litre aquarium carries about 240 kg of water before the glass, the substrate and the rocks. Put it on the matching JUWEL cabinet or on a stand engineered for the load, never on a sideboard or a shelf that merely looks sturdy.
• The base has to be supported across its whole area and it has to be dead level. Glass cracks from a point load or a twist rather than from a knock, so shim the cabinet feet and check it with a spirit level before a drop of water goes in.
• Decide where it lives before you fill it. A full aquarium cannot be moved, nudged or straightened, and emptying one to shift it 20 cm is a long afternoon.

Starting It Up

• A new aquarium is not ready for a full load of fish. The filter needs four to six weeks to grow the bacteria that process ammonia, and stocking it on day one is the commonest way a first tank goes wrong. A bacterial starter such as JUWEL bioBoost shortens that wait; it does not remove it.
• Get a test kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and use it. Until nitrite reads zero consistently the tank is still cycling, whatever the water looks like.
• Dubai tap water is largely desalinated and comes out soft and low in minerals. That suits plants and soft-water fish, and it does not suit livebearers or African cichlids without remineralising first. Ask us and we will tell you what to add.

Keeping It Cool Through The Summer

• In most of the world an aquarium needs heating. Here the problem runs the other way for much of the year, and a tank in a room sitting at 30 degrees will drift above where most tropical fish are comfortable.
• Warm water holds less oxygen, so the first move is more surface movement. A surface skimmer or an air stone does more on a hot afternoon than anything else you can buy. Running the lights through the cooler part of the day helps too.
• If the room is air conditioned the tank will track it, which is usually the whole answer in a Dubai flat. Where it is not, ask us about fans and chillers before the summer rather than during it.

Good To Know

• A 240 litre nominal Rio 240, in black.
• The finish is the trim and the hood. JUWEL make these in black, white, dark wood, light wood and grey, but not every finish exists for every model. If you are buying the matching cabinet, order both at once, because the wood effects get replaced between model years and a later cabinet may not match an earlier tank.
• The matching cabinet is listed separately as the JUWEL Rio 240 cabinet, and we stock it in several finishes. Tell us if you want both and we will make sure the pair match.
• Ask us for the exact external dimensions before you measure an alcove or order a cabinet. Going by the litres is how people end up 4 cm short.
• Not a marine set as supplied. It will run as a saltwater tank, but that needs different lighting, a skimmer and kit we would want to talk to you about first.
• Delivery and placement on something this heavy is worth arranging rather than assuming. Talk to us about access, stairs and which room it is going in.