Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased the Fluval View a few days ago from a pet store (chain) in my town and I am VERY pleased with it. It is the most attractive aquarium I've ever owned, bar none. It was so simple to set up that I kept asking myself if there was something I was forgetting to do or if a part was missing - but it wasn't, it was just that simple! Right now I just have a Betta in the tank and some live plants (may add cherry shrimp or something else that is compatible). My betta seems very happy in his new home and is swimming all over the tank happily exploring. The lighting in the tank is exceptionally well done, I am impressed by both the day and night modes. Usually aquarium tanks with "night lights" seem to just kind of wind up looking a little tacky to me but this one isn't like that. It honestly reminds me of seeing an underwater camera on TV showing a scene where light is shining through vegetation in to a body of water. It's very attractive and is the perfect brightness to serve as a dim night light in a dark room. The day light is equally as impressive. Normally fish tanks have areas that are shadowy and hard to see but the day light mode illuminates everything VERY well, you don't feel like you're looking in to a fish tank at all. I'm not an expert on aquariums and fish by any means so I can't speak to the quality of the filter but here are my untrained perceptions: The water current isn't very strong which is good for bettas, but it could be a bit stronger (if required for other fish types) by keeping the water level a little lower - I reduced the current by filling it up as much as I could without going over the waterfalls from the filter output. The betta doesn't seem to have any trouble when he gets up near the filter intake at the bottom in the back either, I was worried he'd have trouble with it but he doesn't. The filter compartment lifts out easily for cleaning, and everything is very easily accessible. The tank is VERY light-weight which makes it MUCH easier to clean than most aquariums. The one and only complaint I have about this tank is that the leaf decoration at the top and in the back of the tank on the filter is not currently removable or customizable in any way. While it IS an attractive decorative feature it doesn't exactly match the decor in the room I am keeping it in. However, green plants is about as versatile a design as you can get so it isn't really a big deal. It really is a nice design and I think it adds to the overall attractiveness of the tank. I just wish there were options of different designs to choose from. Maybe they will add this in the future, it seems like a very simple thing to produce for customers to purchase additionally if desired. It would be nice to be able to switch out designs from time to time. I really love the simplicity of this tank - both in form and function - and I hope aquarium designers take notes from this one because the design is so well thought out. I would repurchase this in a heartbeat. I very highly recommend it! UPDATE: I've had this tank for over a month and a half now and have learned a lot more about fish keeping so I wanted to add some things to this review. The LED lighting does look visually stunning in this tank but it is actually not powerful enough for a lot of live aquarium plants. I bought 2 live plants when I got the tank not knowing anything about them and one wound up dying because it required a more powerful lighting setup than this tank had. The other plant has done just fine because it has lower light requirements. So that is definitely something to be aware of. The tank is made of a material that makes it much more light-weight than glass which is a big bonus to me, however, it also is much more scratch prone than glass. I have a few small scratches on the tank now where a large log decoration slipped out of my grip and scratched the tank a little bit. It didn't fall more than a few inches so I'd say it's pretty scratch prone. It's only noticeable when I get very close up so I'm just going to be very careful with it from now on. Would I repurchase a tank with this material even though it scratched easier? I probably would because the weight of the tank is more of an issue to me than needing to be careful that I don't scratch the tank. It will depend on your preference. Another thing about the lighting is that as far as I can tell it's impossible to change it out for anything else. Kind of frustrating because I would like to grow some more colorful plants but I don't think that's an option. The filtration system has worked great for me, my tank has stayed crystal clear! I have a betta and 2 nerite snails in my tank. A large part keeping the aquarium clear is simply keeping the tank clean and not putting too many fish or overfeeding - but a quality filtration system helps! (Never use soap/cleaners to clean the tank! it kills the good bacteria that reduce the ammonia that will harm your fish!) One thing to note is that it seems the filters are hard to find outside of amazon, (which is probably good in a way because changing your filters removes the beneficial bacteria. Ignore what they say to replace the filters frequently - that's just to get you to spend more money. You should only change them if they're falling apart. However, when I needed to use fish medication to treat something he had when I got him I needed a filter without activated carbon and I was completely unable to find one. The carbon would absorb the medication so I had to take the filters out and rig a temporary DIY filter with some aquarium foam I cut to shape. Seems to be working out fine but it was frustrating not finding what I was looking for. I do still love this tank, it has a lot of pros that definitely outweigh the cons for me. I have really enjoyed it and am now considering adding a larger tank to my home because I've enjoyed this small one so much.