Penn-Plax Presents The AquaTerrium 2.65 Gallon Planting Tank - Grow Plants and Fish in one Environment (Large)

I absolutely love this tank. I was hesitant to buy it upon reading the reviews, but it looked too gorgeous to pass up. I have a betta fish that I needed a tank upgrade for, and since everyone said they were small, I bought the largest one available to be safe. He has plenty of space, has plenty of things to rest on and interact with, and the look of it really brings out his colors and emulates his natural environment. The live plants I have in the pockets are also doing very well. The filter is very quiet but you can hear water trickle a bit from drainage in the pockets and it trickling down the fall, it’s super soothing. The plant light is very bright, and it doesn’t run hot. On top of adding my own plants, I use the fake ones that come with it as well to fill the gaps and make it look even more lush. Not having seams at the display in the front is also aesthetically pleasing.Some of the customer reviews are true, but there’s little minor fixes you can do to address them.First of all, people have been saying the filter isn’t strong enough. This is completely bull. If you plugged in the filter and water comes through the top already filling all the plant pockets, once you actually put plants in it, it would overflow. When I got mine, the tube was bent in a spot, and there was too much of it, which actually restricted the whole flow. If it’s still not coming out as strong as you’d like it to at the top, just cut the tube down so that it goes straight up to the top of the tank (so it’s not bent or twisted anywhere to fit all of the tubing it came with). I took a photo of the length I cut my tubin down to so you can see what it looks like in the back, it used to be double that length.Another concern someone had was there were gaps large enough for their female betta to get through to the back and get stuck to the filter. The bottom piece of the fall is completely sealed to the back, and without any gravel there’s a couple small holes, which are easily covered with gravel and even protected with foam that it comes with. Not sure how that would happen but I see no potential issue with it for mine, but my betta is quite large to fit through that anyway if he wanted to. Not to mention, that filter box is so small and doesn’t have THAT much sucking power, just the perfect amount.The only downside to this tank is that it’s a it of a pain to clean, at least from what I can tell right now (I haven’t had to clean it yet, it stays beautiful for a long time). The bottom base of the fall is attached to the tank, and you can’t remove it to really scrub in harder places without using a toothbrush or something.I hope my experience that I’ve had with this tank helps!

I am not going to lie... this little paludarium has given me so much delight and joy since February when it was gifted to me on my birthday. I ordered all the little necessities with my gift card. I got substraight, sand, seeds for plants, filter media, and live moss and tiny water-loving plants for the topside. I set it up, added the seeds, sprouted them and let the tank cycle.I wedged the plants into the little receptacles, where the water is designed to run through. I surrounded them with moss. The little ecosystem cycled for a bit. I did two water changes to remove the really dark tannins from the wood, leaves & litter. And after three weeks, my ground cover had come in. I added a couple of ottos first. Then some ghost shrimp. Finally I got 5 strawberry rasbora. Chili and strawberry rasbora are the perfect size and this tank is ideal for them. The duckweed needs to be culled almost every day because it's a small surface and they propagate fast.You *could* keep a single Betta in this tank. A few guppies maybe. Nothing larger than a nano-fish otherwise. Tiny Rasbora are ideal. About 8-10 max. Neocardina shrimp might be able to jump out or get into the filter section and die. So larger shrimp like ghost shrimp are better. I made a short cover out of craft plexi to keep them from leaping to their deaths.I got a timed sunrise and sunset lamp. And even with the constant nutritious water pouring over the plant roots, they need to be misted too. But this little paludarium fits on a little end table by my desk and I spend a lot of home delighting on the baby ghost shrimp, the rotifers and edible things hatching in the duckweed. It's so fun. Recommend 100%.Downsides: tube in the pump is transparent, so it needs to me de-algaed with a pipe cleaner now and again to keep the water flowing. The light that comes with it is OK. An extra $15 for an automatic one with sunrise and sunset is worth it. The plastic plants are just landfill fodder. No point of having them in there if you're using it as it was designed for real plants. I do wish the filter-side was smaller and designed less clumsily. The fish and water-life seem to enjoy the cave overhang though. Also, you need to get the smallest, flat heater for this nano-tank to economize your space.Because of the vegetation i have, it's easy to buy rotifer or daphnia eggs that you can sprinkle in the growth at the water's edge. Then your fish have real food to hunt. I also added Thai micro-crabs, who live on the substraight and keep it clean. Some stowaway pest snails came with a Monte Carlo plant, and they stay mostly in the filter half of the tank. So they're manageable. Anyway... if you love plants and fish and tiny ecosystems, get this. It is a lot of work to get the ideal setup for a natural riverbank-scape. But it really is a delightful little tank. Really different from the usual freshwater setup.