Juwel Rio 180 lighting frustration !!

The lights on my tank flicker twice then die, after some research this seems to be a ballast issue. However it’s a sealed unit and I’d have to butcher it and attempt to reseal it and run the risk of it happening again and again .. a new unit is £148, which fine but they are notorious for this issue as “ the heat created by the lights creates the issue” and a lot of reports that condensation causes it, either way I’d be replacing more often than I want. The bulbs in mine are the t5’s which have the starters inside the bulbs , the t8’s don’t but starters are are sealed in the unit so to change bulbs means changing the unit so again back to square one.

the main unit sits in the middle and the tank lids slot into it so if I remove the unit I have no lid. If I go for a diy light I’d need to also get/ make a lid. The length is 101cm so quite long and I’ll be honest I’m rubbish I’m diy.

does anyone have any ideas for me on this or have any experience or advice. I’m frustrated with juwel for making such a rubbish design that makes it impossible to fix anything light wise , obviously they just want to sell you more of them but do better !!!

 

I have had very good luck with the seven Finnex 24/7 plant plus lights I have. Maybe look into these.

 

It looks really good ! Thanks for the recommendation. I’d lose my lid though , do you have any experience with acrylic on a long tank? It looks great on small/ nano tanks but I’ve never seen one on a bigger one and I wonder if that’s for a reason like flexibility maybe ?

 

Never used acrylic, only glass lids.

 

I believe it can warp pretty quick and with a piece that long I’d expect it to. I can’t take the rim off my tank so I’d have to find clips strong enough to hold that would fit with the rim and all of this is just sounding like an ordeal I’ve found a stockist that isn’t too far away so I may just take the light and see if anything can be done