Aquavista Panoramic Wall Aquarium, Silver, 6-Feet Wide

Let me be up front: I don't own this item. But having taken care of fish for decades, I would definitely not recommend buying this fish tank. The first caveat is when you are told the tank is essentially self-regulating. No tank only takes only 15 minutes per month to take care of, except if you don't care whether the fish or plants survive or not. All tanks need at least a 30 percent water change and a major cleaning (scrubbing glass, cleaning gravel and debris, cleaning filter, adding buffers, conditioners or supplements to the water) per month, period. This is regardless of whether the tank has a fancy keypad or not. This tank in particular would be very difficult to clean because of its shape. Second, the size of the tank is deceptively large; it is impractical for large display fish. The width of this tank is less than 6 inches and the total square footage of the base of the tank is only 420 square inches. This means that ONLY miniature fish (less than 2" long adult size) would be able to maneuver comfortably in this tank. This tank should be treated more like a 30 gallon tank because of the low square footage of the base (therefore, no more than 15 fish that are 2" or less in size). Most people will not be satisfied by these limitations. Better to buy a larger tank with greater base square footage and stock with larger ornamental fish that would befit the visual grandeur of a tank of these dimensions (from the front).

I've been wanting this fish tank for a long time and for christmas, a loved one got it for me! I'm so spoiled ha. But the first time it was delivered the back glass was completely cracked. So then Amazon sent another. Lugging this thing up my stairs twice was NOT fun as its HEAVY. The second tank arrived and was damaged too.For something this big, heavy and made out of glass, you'd expect it to overly packaged. Its not. It arrives on a pallet and has half an inch of foam board on each side and with some formed styrofoam on the edges. Aquavista really should invest more in their packaging, especially for something so expensive.Back to the second tank, this one was damaged and the side plexiglass (removable and plastic) part was cracked along with the frame shroud being damaged (top bar bent and the side metal piece deeply gouged.) Luckily these parts can be removed by removing some screws. A better solution for me than trying to send back to Amazon for a third tank.I emailed Aquavista at this point to tell them that I need these parts and to have them shipped to me. I did not want to return the tank again, lugging it back down the stairs and reinstalling the brackets on the wall (Get lag bolts, which are not included!) Aquavista was very helpful, but they said they needed to investigate which might take some time. I wasn't happy that I was going to have to wait even longer for these parts to be investigated, especially for an item that cost more than some old used cars! Its been about 3 weeks and I still haven't received any parts from them. I'm hoping they come soon.Now as for the tank, Its actually really impressive. The touch panel makes things so easy since it can all be programmed. But after finally filling the tank to start cycling, the heater would not turn on at all. I was now worried that the touch panel was broken and I really had to send the tank back again. I unplugged the unit and then replugged it back in and the heater came on - what a relief! There is a C02 generator too which is very nice too since my old tank is completely planted. Its suppose to be changed out every 4 months they said, I will probably go back to my normal c02 system at this point to regulate and control better. The included items are pretty cheap too, I expected WAY better at this price point.After filling the tank with water and getting the thing setup, I put in the first two fish. They are about 1.5inches long. It looked like they were getting stressed out from the water pumps on each side being far too strong. I ended up keeping the pumps on to see what would happen and the next day, one of the fish didn't look like it was doing so well. I turned a pump off and then it did better. As someone else noted, you will want to get either adjustable pumps or figure out a way to get the pumps to slow down to not stress your fish out.Later I bought some neons to add to the tank and two days later, I seen two of them stuck in the filtration area on the side! I didn't think they were small enough to get in the filter holes, but they did and were pretty beat up because of it. They, unfortunately, ended up dying because the stress of the pumps and being sucked up into the filtration system. I also ended up adding charcoal to help filter since the "bio-mesh" filter seemed to not really do a good job of helping to cycle the tank.While this tank is unique and very pretty, its not very nice to your fish because of the pumps being far too powerful. Its about 6 inches wide, so you can't really get any fish that are too big either. I have transfered my smaller fish back to my original tank so they don't get stressed. Aquavista would have a hit if they just included adjustable pumps and the biomesh filters went completely down to the where the filter holes are to prevent smaller fish/snails/shrimp getting sucked the filtration system. For the price of this tank, you shouldn't have to modify anything, and you almost have to modify everything that makes this tank circulate.::FOLLOW UP::After about 5 weeks, I received the parts that I needed that were damaged during shipping. Aquavista was very helpful, but rather slow/clueless to figure out the solution in my opinion.I live in SF and they wanted me to come pick the parts up in San Jose, which is about an hour away. What company does that?As for the tank, I had a few more of the smaller fish die, I'm assuming was from the stress of the pumps. I ended up getting some Electric yellow cichlid as they are use to fast waters. I have both pumps on and all remaining fish (about 10 total) are doing well. They range from 1.75-2.5 inches in size.You will also want to use pellet food with the automatic feeder instead of flake food. The moisture will make the flake food clump up. I have a mixture of pellet and flakes together which seem to appease all my various fish.I needed to have the overhead lights to not be on as much as well - the tank was growing a ton of algae. The light with uncontrollable C02 equals a dirty looking tank. I now have the c02 set at 10 mins a day, and the lights are on about 5 hours during the night, which has helped significantly and all my live plants seem to be thriving. I still haven't completely disassembled my old tank as there are still shrimp/snails in that one, which I still need to transfer. The snails (malaysian trumpet snails) would help with the algae as well.One last modification that needed to happen was adding some foam to dampen the incredibly loud (from vibration) air pump. Would drive me NUTS!!!I'm still really happy with this tank and anyone that comes over can't believe its an actual fish tank. If the lights are off, some think its a TV.UPDATE #2 Aug 1, 2013.The control panel ended up showing an Error code - E2 almost everyday. I would then have to turn the tank off and then wait for a little and turn back on to correct the code. Contact Aquavista and they sent me another heater which is now working but I still will get the E2 code periodically (maybe 2-3 a week instead of everyday). I'm thinking that I will have to get a new control panel since I keep having to clear the code. Aquavista suggested that I turn down the heater -don't turn the knob 100% , maybe 90-95%, but that still has not completely worked.UPDATE #3 Sept 26, 2013.So the tank gives me an E2 everyday still. Called aquavista a few months ago and they had me replace the temperature sensor. The guy on the phone assured me that this would fix everything. Now I have changed the heater and the temperature sensor, turned up and down the heater and everyday get the E2 code. Tried getting ahold of aquavista and they have now stopped responding to my emails and stated that the tank is out of warranty and I would have to buy additional parts. I asked the guy before, if its the control panel, how you would even go about changing that, he didn't give me an answer and just kept saying it would be the temp sensor. So now I have a tank that is beeping and needs to be turned on and off everyday. I don't suggest buying this tank as you will be stuck with a huge piece of junk if it decides to go awol on you. The tank has a 6 month warranty on electronics, 1 year on leakage. For the amount of drama this tank has given me I should of just returned it from day one. Aquavista seems not to care about any type of resolution for repairs.

I have had this Aquarium for over 2 years now and have had mixed feelings about it. My wife and I decided to purchase this tank based on the low profile design and the maintenance requirement. We felt that this would perfect for us since it looks good and requires little to no maintenance. But as you all know, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Don't get me wrong, there are things I love about this aquarium, but there are also things that I hate.Packaging:Like most customers have mentioned, packaging needs a little improvement. Box arrived on a wooden pallet and looks like it really took a beating. I was actually surprised there was not any major damage. Parts were loose and moving around in the tank but didn't take me long to figure it out and put everything together.Hardware:Did not come with the lag bolts. Customer Service was very helpful in sending out the lag bolts free of charge but informed me that it will take several days to arrive. Like most people, I didn't want to wait so I decided to pay a visit to my local hardware store. Brackets are very sturdy and can definitely hold the weight of the aquarium when mounted to studs.Parts:It looks like all the mechanical parts (Air pump, Filters, Heater, CO2 Generator, Thermostat, etc.) will need to be purchased through Aquavista. You can't just go to Petco and pick up another heater and connect to your control panel. The connectors for the parts are proprietary. However, you can actually rewire parts you purchase to work with it.Lights: The light bulbs are also extremely hard to find. Two light bulbs will be included (10,000k and a Blue Bulb). I had no luck finding the bulbs from other vendors except in bulk of 100+ pieces. Aquavista sells the bulbs for $30.00 a bulb. I run my lights for about 6 hours a day and they lasted for about a little over a year. I ended up finding a bulb perfect for my use for about $6.00 a bulb. Plastic film will start to peel off from the plastic strip used to cover the light after prolonged use.Air Pump: LOUD! No matter what you do. I stopped using mine after 2 days.Auto-feeder: Will clump up even if you crush the food because of the moisture.Filters: Overpowered for such a small tank. I do not understand why people will choose to limit their fish selection because of the filters. I only use filter and almost made some modifications to slow down the water flow. Not only fast water flow can limit the type of fish you can keep, it can also contribute to the fast growth of certain types of algae. I have my second filter directed to the surface only run a few hours when the lights are turned off for some surface agitation when the lights are off.CO2 Generator: The one included was defective. Replacement was also defective. I didn't bother with it anymore. Not sure if it is the control panel or the CO2 Generator but I didn't feel like troubleshooting. Decided to go with Compressed CO2. Never looked back.Heater: No issues with heater yet. Seems to be working fine so far.Thermostat: Does its job.Things to Consider:- Placement of the aquarium. I placed it above my couch. It looks great but it gets a bit difficult when performing maintenance. I would often have to step all over my couch or pile up the cushions/pillows in order for me to be able to clean the tank.- How much time do you want to spend on maintenance? Ease of maintenance. Yes, this aquarium is automated but there still requires some routine maintenance and is actually a little more difficult compared to the average aquariums. Definitely not a "Set it, and Forget It" type of thing.UPDATE: 03/05/15Woke up to a beeping noise. E2 error on screen. The heating element decided to give up. It looks like the heating element couldn't last for even 3 years, which is normal according to Aquavista. I've had heating elements from other tanks lasting a good 7 years. Been noticing issues with the filtration system as well. I've decided that as each component starts to fail, I will replace it with better components.