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Tetra AquaArt Aquarium Complete Set Discover Line 60L

January 10th, 2012

Tetra AquaArt Aquarium Complete Set Discover Line 60L.

Welcome to my review of the new Tetra AquaArt aquarium this is the first part of the review as I follow it through to maturity.

First impressions are of a pleasant aesthetically looking tank very clean lines good viewing area and a streamlined lid, all in a silvery grey plastic.

What’s in the box? Tetra provide everything with this tank to get you up and running it comes with a T5 light fitted in the lid, a housing which contains the filter and heater. 3 x 100ml bottles containing Safe Start, Aqua Safe and Easy Balance, they also give you a tub of Tetra mini flakes and a few booklets .You also receive 2 of the Tetra Easy Crystal filters.

Straight out of the box.

(See Paddock Farm Facebook Page For Picture)

The Lid

This is a pleasing and user friendly lid comprising of the housing for the T5 light which is nice and illuminating on a tank of this size. You also get 3 opening hatches there is one at the front which is the full length of the hood and two at the back enabling access to the housing for the filter and the heater depending on which side you wish to place the housing. This enables you to adjust the temperature and change the filter without getting wet. I found it was easier to place the housing on the right as this is the side where you also have a number of cut outs to feed the wires through.

The Lid

(See Paddock Farm Facebook Page For Picture)

The Filter & Heater Housing

So the tank as I said comes with a heater and filter this is all contained in a black plastic housing and on the back of the tank there is options to fit it to the left or right below the openings in the lid. There is mounting brackets which the housing clips into. The heater a Tetratec HT50 just slides neatly into its aperture next to the filter which is the Tetratec Easy Crystal Filter box 300. The filter it should be pointed out is of the overflow type so it does not provide a powerful circulation of the water.

Initial Set up

The initial set up could not be easier the tank comes complete so decide which side your going to house the filter on, insert a filter cartridge set the temperature on the heater. Then all you need to add is the substrate that you require add the plants and water connect the three plugs to the mains and that’s it basically.

Initial Set Up Day 1

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Overall Impression

I would say this is a very nice tank well put together and easy to set up. For a novice fish keeper this is an ideal 60L aquarium with everything you require to get you up and running It is also a good choice for anybody who is looking to change their current tank to a newer model.

In comparison to the aquariums I started out with many years ago it is head and shoulders above those, when comparing it to other aquariums on the market now of the same size it is vary favourable It may come down to your budget to decide if this Tetra AquaArt is the right one for you.

For some Aquarium keepers they may not like the fact that the filter is of the overflow type personally I think I will upgrade the filter depending on my choice of stock at present it is home to a shoal of Leopard Danio’s and the filter type is fine for them and other community fish.

So at this moment in time I would say It’s a very good aquarium for the RRP of £120.00 (the stand is extra) and I would rate it 9/10.

I will update the review over the coming months.

Jennine

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Posted in Product Reviews, Tropical

Tags: Aqua Art Review Tetra

Eheim 3582 Twin review by Darren

September 25th, 2011

Darren is a customer of our’s at Paddock Farm, so when he came in to ask for help choosing an automatic feeder, we gave him an Eheim 3582 Twin Automatic Feeder to take a look at. Here’s Darren’s thoughts on the product and his experience using it.

First impressions of the fish feeder were good. It had a clever design that allowed both flake and pellet to be fed to my Tanganyika aquarium fish.

Batteries were supplied and were easily installed. Setting the amount of food to come out of the feeder was easily done over a container by holding different buttons down (one for each tube). I eventually settled on 3 turns for the flake and 1 for the pellet. The display on the feeder was not clear at first, where there was three feeds per day (the left side for the left feeder etc) Left and right feeders could have been displayed on the LCD display to clear this up.

Once set up, the feeder was positioned over the tank, but I had to slide the lid half on and half off, as the feeder did not come with any type of clip for the side of the tank which i was very surprised at. So it was balanced at the edge of my lid as there was nowhere else to put it!

I went on holiday for 10 days, and no fish had died, which I was very pleased with so the feeder did its job! There was however one problem that hadn’t been taken into account when designing the feeder; the condensation build-up. If used with a tropical/warm tank the condensation will inevitably build up, which it did under the delivery tubes. On my return i did find wet food stuck to the edges, which could have prevented any further food coming out. I’m not sure when this occurred, and possibly didn’t affect it when i was away, but for longer periods might be an issue.

Overall I’m pleased with the product, but does need a clip for the side of the tank or a funnel shoot to direct the food to a specific area of the tank.

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