Juwel Trigon 190

...up a couple of air-stones. Juwel also sell a venturi kit for their internal filter, but they are a little difficult to find.

The second problem was with our "weather loaches". Michael (Fish) and John (Kettley of Fish) are cheery fellows that spend most of their time under the gravel or playing in the bubbles from the air stones. Unfortunately they are also rather acrobatic and like nothing more than to try the occasional ...
...sufficiently small that they couldn't get in to the pump, the top of the unit has a gaping hole in it that they (somehow) managed to land on and wiggle through on a number of occasions. While this wouldn't likely be a problem for bigger or less "long" fish, it's still a bit of a design problem.

Third up in the list of filter-related problems is the silicon that holds the whole filter box to the back walls of the tank. After ... more

6 years ago, LegendaryMrsDude bought some goldfish. She also bought them a bowl to live in. A large bowl, but a bowl all the same. It didn't last long - the fish were for ever gasping at the surface of the water. So we upgraded it to a tank in fairly short order and the fish thrived.

When we moved house 3 years ago it wasn't without a small pang of guilt that the fish weren't getting anything better out of the deal. That, coupled with the fact that we now had more space and nowhere to put the old tank, had us out looking for another upgrade for the fish. We have an L-shaped lounge-diner, with an obvious place for the TV and sofas to live - there wasn't really anywhere to put a big fish tank. Not unless we could get one that would fit in a corner…

Cue the Trigon 190 from Juwel. It's a tank that's specifically designed to fit in corners and even better, it comes on its own stand so there's no need to go hunting for odd-shaped corner tables.

Measuring just short of a metre on each of the straight sides it's a generous 60 cms deep. The thing that sets it apart from your run-of-the-mill corner units though is the beautifully curved front that arcs between the two straight sides to give a wonderful (if slightly surreal and distorted) view of the tanks insides. To save you calculating any awkward volumes to figure out how much water it holds, the 190 in the name refers to the 190 litres capacity. No prizes then for guessing that the Trigon 350 holds a whopping 350 litres.

The tank is constructed from glass, even the curved front, and it's sealed with black silicon which all looks very stylish. The curved face means the glass is a little thicker than you might normally expect, which adds weight but it doesn't spoil the view in any way. A word of caution at this point - while glass tanks are more resistant to scratches than acrylic, the curved design of the front wall creates some unusual problems. The traditional magnetic scraper falls foul most of all, it can't be used horizontally, the curvature of the glass means it simply doesn't work. The other thing to bear in mind, particularly if you have a relatively fine gravel in your tank is that magnetic scrapers WILL scratch even glass tanks if some stones bet stuck between the cleaner and the glass… trust me, my tank bears the scars to prove it.

The supplied stand is available either in "black ash" or "beech" effect finishes. Unfortunately it's a little bit "MFI", in that it's typical flat-packed chipboard with plastic laminate but it's inoffensive and has obviously been designed to take the not insignificant weight of the tank plus 190 litres of water. In actual fact, the cabinet is fairly handy, with an open back to allow for the routing of the assorted cables, pipes and airlines that invariably accompany an aquarium,. There is enough storage space for all your fish's culinary & medicinal requirements as well as any external filtration you might want to use (more on this later!). Doors keep it all looking tidy and also muffle any noise should you have an air pump or similar.

As well as coming with a cabinet, the tank also comes with a lighting hood, two 18w bulbs and an internal filter/heater. It's all very tidily put together and the lights work really well, the front bulb providing "beauty lighting" and the back bulb being there for any plants you might have. The amount of light is ell matched to the size of the tank and only the furthest corners (where the internal filter would be) seem a little dark. The bulbs are fitted with rubber washers to seal out any moisture from the electrics which means there's no need for an unsightly splash-tray between the bulbs and the tank. This does have the disadvantage of the bulbs getting wet and "crusty" if you have air stones (or any other form of bubble-generation) in the tank.

Two removable plastic lids sit front and back of the lighting unit, giving good access to the tank, with the lighting unit being removable for the best access. The front lid is most convenient for feeding time although we tend to use the back lid as well just to make sure the sinking food gets to the weather loaches that tend to lurk towards the back of the tank.

The supplied filter is enclosed in a discrete but bulky black box that's glued to the back corner of the tank and completely submersed in the water. It's of the powerhead variety - a small pump draws water in to the filter "stack" from the top and forces it through a series of increasingly fine sponge pads, some of which can be coated in activated charcoal. While there's no information available on the flow-rate of the filter you can assume that it's enough for the size of the tank (or surely they wouldn't have used it??). The supplied heating element is conveniently located inside the filter housing as well, meaning that warm water is distributed around the tank by the powerhead. I don't use the heater though as I've got goldfish and it's with the filter that I've had the most problems...

The first thing I will highlight is that because the filter system is entirely submerged, it does nothing to oxygenate the water. I mention this because it didn't take long before our goldfish were back at the surface gasping. The remedy was simple enough - just dig out the old air pump and hook up a couple of air-stones. Juwel also sell a venturi kit for their internal filter, but they are a little difficult to find.

The second problem was with our "weather loaches". Michael (Fish) and John (Kettley of Fish) are cheery fellows that spend most of their time under the gravel or playing in the bubbles from the air stones. Unfortunately they are also rather acrobatic and like nothing more than to try the occasional escape. While the inlet and outlets of the filter are sufficiently small that they couldn't get in to the pump, the top of the unit has a gaping hole in it that they (somehow) managed to land on and wiggle through on a number of occasions. While this wouldn't likely be a problem for bigger or less "long" fish, it's still a bit of a design problem.

Third up in the list of filter-related problems is the silicon that holds the whole filter box to the back walls of the tank. After about a year or so this had deteriorated to the point where the filter box came loose and fell away from the wall, in to the main space of the tank. The only real way to repair it would be to drain the tank and re-stick it - not particularly feasible with a tank full of fish unless you've got some temporary accommodation for them.

Finally, there's the flexibility (or rather lack of flexibility) of the filter system. While it's easy enough to clean - the sponge filter material comes in two neat plastic caddies that make taking it apart simplicity itself - the replacement material is rather expensive, especially if you want an activated charcoal layer for added filtration. Then there's the fact that the only filter materials you can have are coarse, fine and charcoal sponges and there's not much else you can do with it - no ammonia removal, no peat-based conditioning etc, etc.

So I replaced the internal filter with an external unit and the tank has been a much better place ever since. The water is cleaner, there's more space for the fish and maintenance of the self-contained filter canister is much tidier.

In summary, the tank and cabinet are fine pieces of furniture. The striking design of the tank itself is also quite stunning and it attracts complements from almost everyone who visits. Nephews love feeding the fish and, while the tank on it's cabinet is high, it is at just the right level for a 2 - 3 year-old to get eye-to-eye with the fish. The lids make it easy to feed and clean without too much of a palaver and the glass walls are relatively hard to scratch. It is rather deep, at 60 cm, it can be a chore trying to clean the bottom of the back walls, particularly as, when it's installed in a corner, you have to lean over the entire tank to get to them but it is achievable.

Talking of cleaning and, bearing in mind that this tank holds 190 litres of water, it's probably worth mentioning the whole water-change phenomenom. As you've already heard, the tank is quite deep (2 feet). It also sits atop a cabinet that's probably about 2.5 feet high. All of this adds up (unsurprisingly) to the top of the tank being about 4.5 feet high which can make changing the water something of a chore. Not only will you need a gravel-filter/syphon with a long enough hose, it also takes an age! At around 10 litres a bucket, a 25% water change is about 4 buckets worth with a whipping 8 buckets needed for 50% (isn't maths great!). Suffice to say, it can take a good hour to give it a reasonable clean.

As you will already have guessed, the filter is the thing that lets the package down. If they did away with it and removed £50 from the price it would be a real bargain and easily warrant 5 stars. As it stands, you will almost certainly have to spend an additional £40 - £50 on a replacement at some stage, on top of the £400 it costs to buy the package. So the best I can award it is 4 stars.
 

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