Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This a very basic, very simple tank. But it does what it says it does. I bought this tank/fish for my five year old daughter. I wanted something very low maintenance. I have an extensive history in tropical fish husbandry/breeding and, while I enjoyed it immensely, I was looking for the exact opposite with the setup for my daughter. Due to other small children in the house, I was seeking something not tied down by power cords. And I wanted something easy to clean. I was skeptical when purchasing this, but I read the reviews on here and they actually sounded promising. I knew going into it that it was 1) for a betta 2) would have to be cleaned frequently. Purchase/Set-Up: I opened the box and everything was intact (not broken). I noticed that I probably wouldn't like the rocks and plant provided so I purchased small, smooth rocks sold in the pet store (probably cheaper elsewhere). I cleaned everything thoroughly (hot water only) and set the tank up...pretty easy stuff. I took two "stems" off the artificial silk plant I had purchased, and floated them in the tank. They provide more coverage for the betta similar to their natural habitat, and they are flexible by floating them (planted plants are not flexible and can appear to make more tighter spaces in the tank). I added a Little Mermaid decoration: completely necessary for a five year old's tank :) I added conditioned water to the tank, adding more water than needed to the tank so I could make sure the system worked. All systems go! Adding the fish: My daughter chose "Blue", a male Betta. We made sure the tank temperature was similar to the temp in his cup and we added him to the tank, with the water he was in (naturally this squeezed some water out of the cleaning system). He appears to like the tank quite well. The tank is 2 liters. Some would argue that this is pretty small, and they are right, but I have seen a lot smaller setups for Bettas, or I have seen large setups for them that just plain suck. "Blue" has plenty of room to swim around. I should add I didn't use many rocks, and the rocks I used are smaller than what is provided, and this gave a little more swimming room as well. He seems very content with his tank, and he especially loves his floating silk flowers. On the second day I noticed the water level had already dropped just a tad, but being how small the tank is, a tad makes a difference. So I added some water. I have to add a little water every other day. I also have to stick a heater in every day because the water temp drops pretty quickly. It is February right now so I'm assuming this will only be temporary. Luckily the heater I use can be inserted and removed easily (I purchased it separately from the tank). Be sure to use a heater that is made for a very small tank. I keep the temp at 73, however they can thrive in warmer temp than that. The tank heats up pretty fast so be careful!! And there is no water circulation, so when you are reading the temp make sure the water has been circulated beforehand so you're not getting a reading off of a pocket of water with a different temperature. Cleaning: I clean the tank every 2-3 days. I use one liter of conditioned water, of similar temperature to the tank. The system really works! You can see all the stuff floating up through the tube. Does it get 100% of everything? No, but it gets about 90% or more, and if you clean it every 2-3 days, 10% waste isn't bad at all. The tank is definitely perfect for one betta as far as waste-management goes. 2-3 days sounds like a lot, but it's not hard to add water to a tank...that's it!!!! What I don't like: The light is the only thing I don't care for. It works, and fits nicely over the tank. But it is battery-powered and won't last long. I was hoping to use it often for my daughter to observe the tank, so I'm anticipating buying A LOT of batteries in the future. But I wanted something without a power cord, so it is what it is. Extra batteries from the manufacturer would have been a nice bonus. **Update** September 2015 The tank started getting algae in it more frequently, making it necessary to do a full scrub-down of everything once a week. The inside of the cleaning tube would get algae in it as well. "Blue" didn't seem to mind the tank changes or the little bit of algae that was in his tank before cleanings. Unfortunately we lost Blue six months after we got him and the tank. I'm not sure why; it could have been a tank change, but he survived many tank changes for many months. The light completely stopped working after about two months, so it's kind of laughable that I complained in my review about batteries, because now I have replacement batteries just sitting here for nothing ha! (I ordered replacement batteries from Amazon.) Now that we have done the experience with the tank and I can look back and reflect on the maintenance of the tank, I still believe it is a good tank for the price and it does what it advertises. But the algae problem turned me off so much that I will most likely get a small tank with a filter/circulating water in the future. We loved our experience with the tank though! RIP Blue <3