Turned on the pump and voilà, things worked nicely. Luckily the 5 gallon isn’t that heavy, where as the fully loaded 10 gallon can weigh over 100 pounds!Īfter washing the 10 pounds of new gravel I put it into the tank and filled the tank up with water. I needed to slide the 5 gallon tank over and out of the way to make room for the 10 gallon one. Placing the New TankĪfter looking at all the pieces that came with the TopFin 10 Gallon LED Starter Kit it was time to place it where the existing 5 gallon tank was. The other on the back filter I have used have also been the bio-wheel variety. With a couple of my previous fish tanks I am used to a bio-wheel, Eclipse tend to all make use of bio-wheels, so we’ll see how this bio-media thing holds up to keeping the “good” bacteria. Insert the bio-media part (the green plastic bit) and then slide in the carbon filter cartridge into place. You need to attach the intake pipe to the bottom. At the back of the hood is a larger open space to make room for the filter. This one being on the back of the tank though is a nice surprise. Previous starter kits I have looked at have typically the under-substrate type filter for which I personally never liked. The filter that comes with the Starter Kit sits on the back edge of the tank. Slowly have it fade to being off and then fade to being turned on again I think would be ideal. One thing I’d like to look at is creating some sort of timer/dimmer for the lights so I can turn the lights on and off but not in an abrupt sort of way. The lighting’s cable leaves the hood via a small notch at the back. No mention of what colour temperature they are though. Each LED assembly has 3 bright-white LEDs. I also found that a lot of force was needed to be applied to get them to “snap” in place. The LEDs need to be installed in the areas pictured above. Though with a toddler in the house, I hope I don’t catch him putting things in there he shouldn’t be. When it comes to the hood, it is a lightweight molded plastic and has a small opening in the front so you can feed your fish. The tank itself is pretty straight-forward with dimensions of 10.1-inches wide by 20.1-inches long with a height of 14.1-inches. Of course you need to supply your own substrate (1lb/gal roughly), fish, water (don’t forget to treat it first) and then the items needed to maintain the water and your fish’s health. 50W submersible adjustable heater (instructions mentioned it was Marineland).Filter (hang on edge style – TopFin Power 10).So what do you get in the starter kit? Most of the essentials actually! Luckily the cashier helped by tanking the fish tank to my car! That is some nice customer service! It was pouring outside and the car was parked across the street a little bit away from the shop. The fish tank wouldn’t fit in the stroller, “A” was trying to play with all the dog toys he could find. On sale too! Though when I went to the store I had both kids with me and that was an adventure in itself. That’s when I found the T opFin 10 Gallon LED Starter Kit. A bonus was that if it came with LED lighting. My simple requirements for a new tank was that it was made of glass and was at least 10 gallons in size. When I looked at the options for a new fish tank, I looked to see what sizes were available and at what prices. Just an observation though from some quick Googling. Marineland is also who make the Eclipse system I’ve previously bought. I’ve not heard of TopFin before, but it looks like it is PetSmart’s own brand and perhaps even made by Marineland. Yes, not everyone likes PetSmart, but there is no other option in the area and their prices aren’t too bad. That’s when I noticed a sale on glass tanks at our Local Fish Store (LFS), PetSmart. I only noticed this when we set the tank up for the kidlets and gave our new Betta Splendid, Monkey, a new home.įast forward a couple of months and I wanted to get a new tank that not only had a nice clear view of the fish that will live in it, but also gave more room to not only our Betta, but be big enough to add in some new fish. That is, the UV light from the sun faded out the acrylic that the tank is made from. Unfortunately it also had a downside, well at least for the fish tank. The great thing about our apartment was the amount of direct light we received. When my wife and I lived in our little apartment in Vancouver’s West End, I had set up the little tank in the living room. All you needed to do was add some substrate, water and of course fish. You got the tank, the lighted hood, the filter. Essentially everything you needed to start an aquarium was built all in one neat little package. Even since I purchased the little 5 gallon Eclipse fish tank system I’ve been quite happy with it.
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