Setting up the Juwel Trigon 190 marine aquarium


Lee emptying the original marine aquarium, ready to move everything to the new Juwel Trigon.
 

With Juwel bringing out a protein skimmer to convert their already popular aquariums into a marine set-up, we decided to set up the Trigon 190 corner aquarium as our new marine show aquarium. Fitting the Juwel skimmer to the aquarium is made simple by using their template to silicone in a clip to the inside of the aquarium, which the Juwel skimmer pushes onto. By using the template it makes it look neat and positions the skimmer to the correct height. Using the Juwel filtration pack consisting of the filter media, pump and heater this fits neatly into the Juwel filtration box, conveniently positioned in the corner of the aquarium. Lighting comes in the way of a Juwel T5 light unit, the original tubes which are better suited for a fresh water set-up, are replaced for the Juwel marine T5 tubes. Which are one marine white and one marine blue. These give suitable light output for growing corals, and also looking pleasing on the eye.




Then it comes to adding the sand, which gets washed thoroughly to remove dust and any particles. This gets placed into the bottom of the aquarium at a depth of an inch to an inch and a half. When it comes to adding the water, its best to use reverse osmosis water, as this contains less impurities than tap water. When adding the water use a jug or sieve so not to disturb the sand, as this can cause a lot of clouding in the water. Once the water is in, turn on the filter and heater, to get the water circuiting and up to temperature. This should be around 25-26 degrees. Once the water has reached the desired temperature it is time to add the salt to the aquarium, to obtain a specific gravity/salinity level of around 1.021 to 1.024. This can be done by using a refactor meter or hydrometer to make sure this level s has been achieved. To get the
Juwel protein skimmer up and running, turn on the pump to get the water running through the body of the protein skimmer. To get the air going into the skimmer, to make it skim, slowly open the air valve to the protein skimmer, until the water level reaches half way up the neck of the collection cup.

Once everything is up and running its time to add the live rock. As this not only helps a place for corals to be positioned on, but will also help with the filtration of the aquarium as well. Ideally live rock should be added of a rate of 1kilo of live rock per 10 litres of water. This should already be ready cured live rock. By using non-cured live rock it can take up to a month or more to become cured, this means you are unable to add any livestock to your aquarium until the process has taken place. While the live rock is in the aquarium test daily for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, to see if they have spiked or not.
It is best when buying live rock to take it home as quick as possible, and place it in the aquarium as this will minimise any die off. Leave for at least a couple of weeks before adding any livestock, to make sure that everything has settled down and all the water parameters are where they should be. As we transferred half of the water and well mature live rock from our previous show aquarium, we were able to add original live stock straight away to the Juwel Trigon 190. With regards to adding live stock to a new aquarium set-up, depending on the size of the set-up, only add a couple of hardy fish like, clown fish, damsels, some wrasses and gobies. These fish are good to start with. Some corals like, leather corals, mushrooms and polyps, are good to start with as well. But as with any aquarium set-up take it slowly and regularly test the water so that you get the best possible results in the end.

Any further information on the Juwel marine set-up, or any questions in general about keeping marines, feel free to ask any member of staff, who will be more than happy to help you.