I was looking for a 5 gallon tank for my Betta that was stuck in a .8 gallon and getting fin rot due to my lack of education. Once I learned they needed at least a 5 gallon and filtered tank my search was on. I looked everywhere for the perfect tank, one that would be stylish but also meet all my needs. I decided to spend the extra money and purchase the EcoPico and am so glad I did. It is such a simple design and system that it took no time to put together. Given the wattage the LEDs put out I decided to try my luck (first timer) with live plants because I had also read that artificial plants can tear your fishes fins. My plants are growing great, I have even had to prune one of them back twice because it is growing so well. I have had my tank for almost two months now and my water test great every time. The filter is so quiet if I didn't see plants moving I wouldn't even know it was on. My only concern had been the turbulence of the water from the filter on my Betta. Since he wasn't used to swimming much he was getting thrown around a bit. I called the company and they suggested I lower the filter in the water and that has helped completely. He is now doing great and loves his new home. My only complaint I have is there is no on/off switch for the LEDs, so you have to just plug and unplug to turn on and off. Two fixes for this are a plug in switch or a plug in timer, I prefer the switch because I like to have the tank lit late sometimes when I am in the room but for someone with a steady schedule the timer would be the best thing.**Update: I have now had my Ecopico for over a year now and my plants still look great. I am not very good with fish so I have lost a few in the beginning but I am improving. However, I want to comment on Ecoxotic. They are a great company to work with. Twice now I have had problems with my led, once was my fault when I plugged my laptop charger into the transformer and fried the leds. I even told them what I did and they still sent me a replacement free of charge.
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I had been looking at aquariums for a while but couldn't decide which to get. A friend of mine gave me the EcoPico for a birthday present. BEST GIFT EVER! I set everything up, a nice cave, some gravel, 4 guppies and a pleco. About two months later, everything died. This may have been negligence on my part, after all I had no idea what I was doing, didn't realize I had to cycle my tank first, and I never looked inside the filter. Anyway, when cleaning up the casualties, I realized the filter was composed of a simple sponge! All mechanical. No chemical filtration was provided. I went out and bought some pantyhose, added some carbon, and some biomax...set everything up again (like 3 months later...I couldn't bare everything dying again so soon after)and the tank has been doing wonderfully since! The second time around, I still didn't know about cycling the tank but everything worked out anyway...I think I got lucky with my combination of plants and brackish water fish. Anyway, I give this tank 4 stars simply because a 5 star tank should provide everything you need for a healthy environment. Other than that though, this tank is amazing! Oh, and the filter may be small but it provides some very powerful pumping action! The lights bring out the colors of my fish (black gravel helps too) and I can never get enough of them! I can wake up and stare at the aquarium for hours without realizing. It's got a sleek design and looks very modern. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. I have youtube videos as well...just look up the ecopico. Key words include knight goby and neon blue dwarf gourami.Read Best Reviews of Ecoxotic EcoPico Desktop Fish Aquarium, 5 galllon Here
I did not purchase this tank from Amazon, but from another private seller here in Chicago.I wanted the cool looking small tank for one of my Betta males.
I already own 6.6 gallon Fluval Chi and wanted to keep the "theme" here.
The tank houses only 1 Betta male, few live plants and one Marimo Moss ball.
I LOVE the tank. There's nothing better looking than a glass aquarium.
The LED light is a great touch and a big help, if you want to have live plants. It does not produce any heat, so it's safe to leave it on for many hours.
The tank does come with a LID!
The only thing I had to fiddle with was the filter. It's a powerful little fella and it caused a bit of turmoil for my Betta guy. It took me few days of adjusting the media inside and to cover few intake holes to lower the current to minimum. The filter originally operates only with a sponge media inside, so I upgraded to one of those ACUREL pads they come in various types there's one with Carbon, then Ammonia reducer, Algae reducer, Nitrate control, etc. These pads are higher density, so they reduce the flow of the water inside the filter, plus Carbon adds the power to the filtration process.
I also wanted to keep the sleek look of the tank, so I put the black foil on the back side of the tank, so now the filter and my 50W heater are practically invisible behind the plants.
I uploaded some pictures of the tank and the filter.
The maintenance is extremely easy compared to my previous 95 gallon reef tank (or all my other tanks for that matter).
I have a bit of OCD, so I siphon out at least 25% of the water every 5-6 days, vacuum the poop from the gravel, wipe the water level marks, squeeze the Marimo moss ball, preen the plants and check the little cave for a slime build up (there's almost none). This all takes me only about 15 minutes since the tank is only 5 gallons. Then I put the pretreated fresh water in, check the water quality and that's it.
For the people, who don't want to spend even 15 minutes cleaning the tanks, here's my recommendation please do NOT buy ANY fish (+ tank). Fish are the living creatures and they DO NEED the continuous care.
I agree the cool nano tank or globe aquarium with few fishies looks great as a decoration, but so does the nice vase or a sculpture, that will be just fine without any maintenance.
To all reviewers saying the filter is good for nothing and that they had the problem with fish dying please note, that this is a 5 gallon NANO tank, so it's not really meant to house the whole schools of fish.
I don't know, what is wrong with all these people reviewing the tanks saying "The tank killed my fish. I did nothing wrong....it was the tank!"...and then you read they have at least 10-15 fish, frogs, etc inside.
The overstocked tank (even the well established one) will hold for a while, but it will eventually crash and develop some bacterial infection, or some other illness leading to the death of the inhabitants.
If you want to have gazillion fish, decorations and plants, please purchase 20 and up gallon tank instead.
These 3,4,5,6 gallon tanks are great, but there's a limited amount of fish you can put in there. Even the small fishies usually need the wider tanks, because of their swimming habits and mainly because they do the best in schools of 4 and more, so once again it will lead to overstocking the tank...
I also feel bad for all goldfish living in the small tanks, swimming frantically in never ending circles like these little insane creatures...
I used to have 95 gallon reef tank and needed to downsize after 8 years, so I aimed for a COOL & ELEGANT looking tank, that could be a part of my house décor. I did not really want the large "riverbed' of fish.
This tank is perfect for Betta (once you adjust the flow), also for those, who want to make these cool looking nano aquascapes and also for tiny reef nano with few shrimps.
The main point of my review is this Ecopico is a GREAT looking hip tank. I'm the second owner and so far there was no leak, no filter problems.
The only thing is, that I had to replace the LED strip after few months, but that's ok since I'm the second owner and the tank is few years old. LEDs are great and last for a long time, but not forever, especially if you like to have the light on the whole day.
I did not purchase the original replacement Ecopico LED strip though. I bought this flexible waterproof LED strip on ebay for $5 and hubby installed it to the original ecopico arm. It works just fine and it's even stronger, that the original one.
My advise to all beginners there is nothing wrong with most of the tanks. Please do not be discouraged by some reviews blaming the tanks for poisoning and such stuff. Unless the tank really has leaking issues or a history of a defective filtration, it should be just fine.
Also please do not expect the more expensive tanks to do the job by themselves you will still need to do your own adjustments and maintenance + RESEARCH. I can only suggest to do a really deep research to decide on what fish you would like to have in your tank beforehand and THEN to buy a tank. Please do not buy the tank first and overstock it later it will eventually lead to a catastrophy and a heartbreak.
Good luck to everyone :-)....and sorry for sounding harsh. I had no intention to attack others, just wanted to clear the waters for those, who are deciding on a purchase of the tank.
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