Help with Selecting a Desktop Aquarium- Too Many Options!

I

isuchopper

AC Members
Dec 19, 2004
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Chicago
Hi Everybody-

My girlfriend is going to take pity on me and buy me a desktop aquarium for work since I can't bring my Nanocube to the office with me. I'm having trouble choosing which one, though, so I'm some folk's will share their opinions. The options are:

1) Eclipse 3 gallon- pretty standard

2) Azoo Magic Box- 2.5 gallon, Azoo Galaxy light (13W), Mignon Filter- looks like this is the older brother of the Palm filter. You can find this on Drs Foster and Smith (pretty good discount):

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1

3) Minibow 2.5- don't really like the in-tank filter, though

4) Build my own with a 2.5 AGA, HOB filter and PC light on top

5) Jebo Odyssea Mini-reef 10 gallon- this one is a lot bigger and pretty cheap, so I'm a little leary.

I'm going to keep a few white clouds, a couple dwarf crayfish (I'll post a thread on these guys soon) and plenty of plants.

Let me know what y'all think. Thanks for the help.

Mike
 
thanks

tipstylz-

I hear you on the rip off, but at this point I'm willing to pay a little more to snag a seamless tank. Just not sure it these a going to make it past the first month.
 
Wal-Mart sells what they call a "AquaTech 5" bowfront acrylic tank.

Guess what. It's an Eclipse 6 with a shorter tank and it's less than $40. They're both made by Marineland. I bought one last year for our "Office Tank." It's been working like a champ ever since. It's the exact same filter and light system as the Eclipse, so it has the bio-wheel and a fluorescent light.

The water is always crystal clear and the water flow is more than adequate for that size tank, around 15x overfiltering, if you believe the output. But it's at least 10x overfiltering if you're conservative in the flowrate.

The cartridges are also cheaper at Wal-Mart and the same as Eclipse filters as well, although I don't replace them very often. Every 3-4 months or so. I usually just rinse it off in old tank water and reinstall.

It's a great little tank for far less than you'd pay otherwise.
 
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I have the Minibow 2.5 here at work and I really love it. The hood has the light in it and actually acts as somewhat a heater. The Whisper filter is great. No sound at all. I know it is internal, however it really works great and you can actually see the filter sucking up particles after I mix up the gravel. I am pleased with it. And very economical.
 
I finally made a decision

Folks- I ended up picking the Azoo. I should be showing up here in a couple of days and I'll let you know if anything blows up. Hopefully I'll have something groovy enough to start a thread on.

Soulcoffr-

I picked up Walmart's version of the hex 5 a couple years back and I've been pretty happy with it. It's actually housing some white clouds and a cory for my girlfriend right now. Very nice price. I shied away from another one for this tank since I wanted something smaller that wouldn't take up too much desk space.

Where are you from in Eastern Iowa? I grew up in Cedar Falls.

SunnySide- Glad the bowfront works. I was pretty tempted with it.
 
Ah! Well, sometimes the footprint of the larger capacity can be an issue. I'll be interested in hearing how the Azoo tank works out.

I live in Cedar Rapids. I grew up here, then I lived in Milwaukee for about three years, and now I'm back again.

By your username, I'm wondering if you went to my alma mater, Iowa State.
 
Cyclone Pride!

S- Yup, ISU grad of 2001. I'm in school again (Northwestern), but only because I thought it would be as fun as Iowa State. Not true. Nothing can beat it. Any chance we played sports against each other in high school?

As it turns out, if the Azoo doesn't get here soon, I may have to pick up one of those Walmart specials for a quarantine tank for the crays.

I'm interested in how the Azoo will work out, too. I've curious about the long term quality of the Azoo since I just contacted a fish store out in California that dropped the large Azoo cubes because they loose their clarity over time. Of course, for $30, as long as it looks okay for a year, I'll be fine.

P.S. Catch the bowl game?
 
Always nice to meet a fellow Cyclone. I'm Class of 1995 myself. And I haven't been to a campus yet that matches ISU. I didn't play sports in high school (never mind the age difference), I was in the band. :-)

I've not heard much about the Azoo stuff. Although I've thought about picking up one of their battery backup air pumps for safety purposes.

I did catch some of the bowl game. I had to work that day. The loss sucked because it was so close, but if you make mistakes, sometimes it's hard to come back. Just ask the Hawkeyes about that. :-)
 
Update: good news and bad news on the Azoo

I just got my Azoo Magic Box and it was pretty much what I was hoping for, but it had a pretty nice chip out of the lip that runs around the bottom edge of the tank: roughly 3" long. It even got into the more structural part of the tank. So, I called up Drs. Foster and Smith, told them about it, and Sarah was kind enough to ship out a new tank to me. The good part, though, is that I can keep the old one (actually, I'm free to 'discard' it), so with a little repair work, I'll have two of these little guys. This works out rather nicely since I needed a quarantine tank for my dwarf crays tomorrow.

Soulcoffr-

Ditto on the Cyclone meeting. Yup, the ISU campus is pretty sweet. Even though we lost the bowl game, the season's a winner since we took the Hawkeyes down. It's nice to have such a simple barometer of your teams performance, isn't it?
 
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