looking to purchase aquarium?

Question

I'm looking for an aquarium that is not the standard boxy rentagular common type ones. Do you know of any that look very nice. Please post link to review. Thanks.

Answer 1

A corner tank would be my first choice after the rectangular.

Hexagons are beautiful, but you have to be aware that you can't keep as many fish in one as a same-sized rectangular tank, since there isn't as much surface area for oxygen. Also, I found mine hard to decorate, since silk plants that tall are pretty tough to find! I find plastic plants ugly, and live plants are tricky in such a deep tank due to the light not being bright enough.

And STAY AWAY from the new novelty tanks! The bio orbs, cubes, anything with the enclosed filtation systems. They haven't worked the kinks out of them yet and keeping fish in them for any length of time can get iffy. I have already heard of some breaking, and one in particular that has platy fry trapped in an unreachable part of the enclosed filter. The owner is just hoping they'll swim out on their own so they don't die in there where he can't even take the tank apart to remove their corpses before they foul the whole tank's environment. I mean, who builds a tank that will fish swim into a part of the equipment you can't take apart??

Answer 2

There are a plethora of options to choose from. You can get a custom tank made, but that will cost you an arm and a leg. Tanks come in various shapes and sizes. You can get a hexagon tank (depending on the angle, you could have actually one fish but it looks like more), a cylinder tank, a corner tank (belongs in the corner of a room still looks like a rectangle but has more depth), and the list goes on and on. They even make picture frame aquariums, coffee table aquariums, etc. Here's a website I found searching google. Check it out: http://www.aquariumsforyou.com/Galleries_FS.html
Just keep in mind, you're limited to the size of the tank depending on the shape. In other words, if you want a bigger tank (60+ gallons) most of your options will be the box rectangular look. Good Luck.
Suggestion: If this is your first tank you should start with a small 20 gallon tank and work you way up. Learn the tricks of the hobby. It'll save you a lot of $ in the long run.

Answer 3

There are lots of shapes available, but just a bit of advise before you totally decide against a rectangular tank.

The number of fish you can safely keep is related to the surface are of your tank (the amount of area at the top of the tank where the water and air are in contact for oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange) and, to some degree, the adequacy of your filtration. A tall, narrow tank has less surface area and will need either an extra long intake tube to pick up "gunk" at the bottom of the tank and circulate O2-rich water back to the bottom or an extra-powerful filter.

With that said, you can get hexagonal, corner (3 sides), pentagonal (5 sides, meant to sit in a corner), 1/4 round (2 sides and a curved front to sit in a corner), and 1/2 round (flat back to sit against a wall and a curved front). Except for the 1/2 round, these don't provide much surface area for the volume of the tank.

There are also bowfronts (3 sides, front curves outward at the center) and "waves" (3 sides, front curves inward on one end, oetward at the other), but these, as well as the 1/2 and 1/4 round will distort the image of the fish (it can look like a fun-house mirror stretching and compressing your fish as they swim).

The tank with the maximum distortion is the biorb - a perfect sphere - this also has a low water surface area because the glass is curved inward at the top.

There is also a "biocube" which is a square, but the front corners are rounded off.

The current "ultimate" in non-traditional tanks is a cylinder where all the filtration pipes are in a cypinder in the middle, leaving space for your fish to swim in a circle around the outside. This tank also rotates!

Here are some websites with tank photos: http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/GlassAquariumListing.web, http://www.biorb.com/ (ignore the set-up in the photo - three goldfish would never last in a tank like this - it would be best for bettas and other surface-breathing fish only!), http://www.oceanicsystems.com/

I couldn't get onto the rotating tank site, but the web address is www.ecoaqualizer.com

Answer 4

i can relate =) i'm a college pupil as properly We began off with a ten gal tank then moved as much as a fifty 5 gal while our guppies began having babies ha ha. i would not advise something smaller than 10 gal till you basically prefer to maintain like 2 or 3 fish. the countless coolest fish we've had that have been ordinary to guard: long finned zebra fish -> probable the coolest fish we've bought he's lively and funky looking guppies -> we've a lot of them now via fact we bread them, yet once you basically get a pair they at the instant are not perplexing to guard. they like to be in small communities from what i've got observed so i might say get 2 of em. Ghost shrimp -> those adult adult males are only scavengers, yet they are cool working around on the backside of the tank. i might basically get like 2 or 3 Crabs -> i've got faith we had pink clawed crabs yet i'm not sure. only little adult adult males. yet in a small tank i would not get the two shrimp and crabs (plus the crabs will escape!) Neon Tetras -> they are small and only style of carry out Platys are rather cool too we've an orange one, i prefer to assert a sunburst platy, and he's amazingly colourful and energetic, only are not getting any women human beings or you're able to get babies! Oh and we tried a woman betta in our tank which does no longer be a bad thought in case you want variety. ---- make advantageous to no longer overstock your tank =)

Answer 5

Hexagon tanks are nice, but they're usually for angel fish or other fish that aren't usually on the bottom. I went to petco the other day and I saw the coolest tank: It was a SQUARE. Not a rectangle, a square. I thought it was cool.

There are bow front tanks that lok VERY nice when planted with feshwater foliage. Its all u pto you. The best place to buy tanks is a pet store or a department store. If you buy a secondhand tank, they might not hold water very well.

Answer 6

The nicest aquariums that I've seen are found here http://aquarium.withsense.com/withsense_category.php
Also there are other companies like living colors that will custom make aquariums to your dimensions. Hope this helps.

Answer 7

The pet stores have a new look. The "Wave" it's hot, look into it.