Aquavista Panoramic Wall Aquarium, Silver, 5-Feet Wide

The first month I had this product I was very pleased. It looked great on my wall, and besides the air pump being a little noisy I had zero complaints. Then the fuse blew. No big deal, I replaced it with a new. Then the fuse blew again, and again. Obviously something was wrong with the product, so I called customer service. They had me do all this testing to see what was wrong; again, makes sense. However, after doing everything they asked me to do, they basically told me "oh well". After threatening to write a bad review, they finally listened and I talked to the CEO of the company. He said he would take care of the issue (bad power supply unit) and send me a new part right away. It's been about three weeks since I talked to him. I've called about five times after that, with the boss being on vacation, manager busy, we'll call you back, etc etc. Still no power supply unit, all my fish have died in the aquarium because it's been off for well over a month now. Be very wary of this company; their one year warranty is a bunch of garbage and you'll be left with a black box on your wall and a lot of fish in your toilet bowl.

I ordered this product about 9 months ago through Amazon, choosing to do so through Amazon for the free shipping. When I installed it and filled it up with water it leaked severely, apparently due to damage incurred during shipping. I contacted the manufacturer and I have to say that they responded well at that time. Because I had purchased it through Amazon, they told me that I would have to ship it back to Amazon(almost $200 to do so!), get a credit, and they would sell me another tank and deliver it. So far - pretty reasonable. All of that went well. Amazon was great on crediting the return and Aquavista delivered my replacement unit as agreed. I bought the tank for my office wall and wanted to have a planted tank with slow moving fish. Because of the size of the tank and 2-lamp light array, low light plants are the only ones that you can plant - but that didn't bother me. There were some issues. The two water pumps are high output, making the tank only suitable for fish found in faster moving water. I have a school of mixed danios, a few praecox rainbows, and a chinese algae eater in the tank and they are doing well. Slower fish such as gouramis, bettas, angels, or any lake fish would not be able to tolerate the amount of water movement in the tank. While cycling the tank and before buying the danios, I tried to find replacement pumps that had a lower water volume. The wattage was different that those that I could find on the market, so I contacted aquavista. They said that they could provide slower pumps, but never responded again when I attempted to purchase them from them. In addition, I've found that the automatic feeder fouls in a week or so from moisture and is useless. The T5 lamps as provided are no good for a planted tank (but great for growing algae). They are also of an odd wattage (28) and length ( 45.2"), making finding suitable replacements very difficult. My email to aquavista about 6500K replacement bulbs went unanswered. I did find the bulbs that I needed on line and finally found a seller that would sell less than a case of 40. ( They sell in lots of 10, but still better than having to buy a case.) Other than the truly crappy aftermarket support, and odd wattage of component parts, I do like the tank. It was the best option that I could find on the market for a wall mounted tank. Would I buy from them again? No.

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.

This tank looks amazing and I am very happy with my purchase! I only wish that the cleaning of the filter was not so complicated! Everything needs to be removed in order to get to the filter sponges to clean them! I was extremely happy with the handling of delivery of my tank! Delivery drivers brought the tank into the house for us and they had called in advance to inform me exactly when they would be here. My biggest concern was it being damaged in shipping but thankfully I had no problems! We really LOVE the tank!