Aquatop Pisces Bullet Shaped Glass Aquarium, 5-Gal Nano Tank – 53 GPH – Touch Sensitive LED Light – All-in-One Kit for Fresh & Saltwater Fish

- I spent a lot of time looking at various aquarium options before buying this model. I like it so much I'm thinking about getting another. I did make some changes from the stock setup but am really happy with the result.- To my knowledge there is no other tank with this unique shape. I have found countless bow-front tanks but this one with one continuous layer of glass from side to side is both one-of-a-kind as well as visually appealing. Visitors to my home have remarked on it's unique design, which is suited to the placement: it's in a room where it is near a high-traffic doorway and stair, so visible from both sides and front. I see it from the side when I'm in the kitchen, so it gets a lot of eyeball time. Adds a little pressure on me to maintain it well, but you get an aquarium for the purpose of looking at it right?- The rounded front surface seems to slightly magnify the size of fish in there. I am keeping neocardinia shrimp in there and they only grow to 1-1/2 inch max so I appreciate this effect. (I have a separate large bowl which has this effect even more)- I like that the filter is in the tank. Allows me to position the aquarium right up against the back wall and there's no HOB external filter to look at. Unlike some tanks that do this though it's not just a plastic divider in the rear of the tank--it's an actual plastic rectangular box that takes approx 2/3 of the width and height of the glass back wall. because it's centered on the back wall there is some volume of tank on the back sides that I place Amazon swords into and is an active section of the tank. More aesthetically appealing in MHO than a blacked out section in the back (Fluval flex, Marineland contour/portrait).- The filter section has a dedicated space for a heater device. (See photo) It's 15/16" wide/long and 7" deep. Aquatic sells a dedicated heater for this space but it has a preset temp which I didn't like so I purchased one of the many small 50w heaters with an external controller and it works great. I love this feature (space for heater in the filter box) and appreciate minimizing the number of view distracting items on the back wall of the aquarium. I found I need to be careful to clean the filter box intake (on the lower front side of the box)--if it gets too clogged the filter intake can't keep up with the pump and the filter water level goes down a little.- Speaking of, the filter comes with small sections of foam that can be attached to the filter intake, which has prevented tiny baby shrimp from getting sucked into the filter box. Works well but can get clogged with debris so I remove it every 3-4 weeks (clean it in tank water when I do a water change).- The filter flow is fairly fast and this is the only downside. Purchasers of small tanks are likely to keep shrimp or a betta, neither of which do well with a lot of current. Tanks like this should come with a SPEED ADJUSTMENT knob to allow users to dial up to just the right filter output. I wish this was a more common feature on aquarium kits. Aquatic: if you are listening, please add this feature to make this the PERFECT AQUARIUM KIT!- The kit comes with cartridge-style media for growing good bacterial and chemical (charcoal) filtration that I decided not to use. I cut a section of sponge for the lower section and 2 small bags of ceramic media for filtration, and found that this setup works well. Consider attaching a pull-up line to the sponge and bags so you can retrieve them for tank water rinse out when the filter starts to have clogging. the inside of the filter is narrow so hard to get your fingers deep in there. You could also use a metal clamp or forceps for this though.- The kit comes with an adequate light that looks modern and attaches at the filter clamp section, illuminating the aquarium from about 3 inches above. I elected to go with a different light (I needed to cover the aquarium and found the stock setup leads to glare on the plastic cover) but this was my preference and was worth the $20 cost of a different light.- Love this aquarium. 5 stars. Hope this helps

This tank is very underwhelming. The light is good and just about what you would expect from an all-in one nano kit. The filtration is atrocious. I’ve never seen a filter as bad as this one. My tank has been setup for a week and I have had to unclog the intake sponge on it almost every other day because I wake up to the pump drawing air. The pump itself also isn’t a typical internal pump like you would find on any other nano tank with built in filtration and it just seems over engineered for its purpose. Any other $10 pump on Amazon would have done the job just fine. I guess it is nice that the filter is optional if you want to use your own but then you have to find a way to mount the light and fit that between the glass top. The glass on the tank itself is good quality and the seals are perfect so it has that going for it. I also wish there was better power cord management on the back of the aquarium. Having the cords visible on the back really ruins the aesthetic of an otherwise sleek and clean design. I will say that it is nice that aqua top includes a spray bar attachment for the filter and intake sponges and that shows they listen to customers. I would probably go with a Fluval Spec V or an Imagitarium 6.8 gallon if I had a do over, though.Update: The pump was clogged internally and impossible to clean. I tried to replace it with a $10 universal pump off amazon and it wouldn’t fit. I tried to order a replacement but Aquatop was sold out. I had to go with a $50 hang on back canister instead. DO NOT BUY THIS TANK.

So far so good! New to aquariums but I chose this one over Fluval Edge due to the curved corners - liked the aesthetic. Be warned the filter flow is STRONG. If you have a fish like a Betta that doesn't like strong current, recommend you baffle the filter outflow with a sponge or something. Not hard - I did a DIY hack job using a pre-filter sponge I cut to the size and thickness I wanted and just fit that over the filter outflow. Works like a charm. If you use sand substrate i would also rec ommend using a pre filter sponge inside the filter housing to keep sand from clogging the filter. Mine started to choke at one point but I had a sponge filter on hand so I inserted it and no more problems. I like the light on top - it arcs over the clear glass lid and provides enough light for plants. It also has a moonlight/black light setting which will make white fish or glow fish or glow deco look amazing. Or, if your fish has some weird spots on his eyes like mine it can make his eyes glow in a really terrifying way. Oh, one more warning for Betta fish owners: due to the curved corners of the tank, the lid does not provide total coverage - the 2 curved corners have a space a little smaller than a quarter so if your fish can jump, this is a hazard! My fish actually jumped out once and I think it was through one of these spaces so plan accordingly. No worries - Frankie survived his adventure. But that's how he got his glowing eye spots and subsequent nickname of Franken-Fish. I'm still giving the tank 5 stars - its very pretty and while not necessary designed for Betta its still a very nice, quality tank where my fish is thriving.

I just got this tank and I really like the dimensions of it. The filter on the other hand is way too strong. It kept uprooting some of my plants I was trying to plant and if you want a betta it will be blown around all over the place. I'm going to try out the Sicce Micron for filtration and see how that works.