Small Fish Tank with Filter and Light – 1.2 Gallon Aquarium Starter Kit with Side Filter & Temperature Sticker, Suitable for 3-5 Small Fish Ideal for Beginners

Missing critical information
This 1.2 gallon Small Fish Tank with Filter and Light (Starter Kit) could be a really great deal for the price.It’s advertised as a Starter Kit, but mine did not come with any instructions so I really don’t know how to set it up. I would say that instructions are critical with any “starter” level product. This is not an “intuitive” product.It comes with a small submersible pump that appears to be designed for aquarium tubing, but there’s no tubing included. It comes with suction cups to attach somewhere, but where? I see a hole in the bottom of the open side of the filter chamber, and I tried to line up the outlet port of the pump with that hole without using tubing, but there’s no way that is going to happen. I’m not even sure that the pump is supposed to be placed in that side of the filter, since I have no instructions.It also doesn’t come with an aerator stone or an aerator, so I’m not sure if you are supposed to get your own air pump and stone, or if the filter somehow adds O2 to the water during it’s process. Photos on the product page don’t show any evidence of an air stone or aeration going on.It comes with porous stones which should support natural bacterial growth to enhance water quality (once those bacteria are entered into the system – information that would have been great to add to an instruction booklet.)The other part of the filter media is a black, porous sponge which should filter out larger particles. This black sponge is clearly cut with a concave side and a notched edge. For those reasons, I can only assume that it needs to be placed in the unit in a specific orientation, but what way?There’s a photo on the product page that has text suggesting that there’s “filter cotton” which didn’t come with my unit. That would be useful to filter smaller particulate.There’s a USB plug that powers two systems. One is the light which is found under the top, which I confused as a handle! The fact that it’s probably not a handle to carry this around is something that should also be part of an instruction manual. If you actually tried to lift this aquarium using that “handle” when it had water in it, I’m not sure what might happen. But, I can say that the filter unit and the top edge and the light /handle are not glued in because when I first took it out of the box, that black plastic section lifted out of the acrylic tank section.The second appliance that is powered by the same, split USB line is the little water pump. The light and pump both turned on when I plugged it in. That’s good.It doesn’t come with a heater, but the product page states that there’s space under the tank for an external heating pad. I’ve never used one of those, so can’t speak to whether that’s a suitable option for this sort of small tank, if one wanted to heat the water.I’m really disappointed that a missing instruction manual makes it difficult to 1. set it up to test it and 2. give it the rating that it possibly deserves. I’m all for kids getting a pet in order to learn how to care for animals. This could be a super affordable, fun, easy product to do just that.In Conclusion: The big issues are1. without instructions, this is impossible to set up.1. where does the water pump go and how do you install it?2. how is the water aerated?3. why didn’t mine come with tubing, an air stone or filter cotton? Were they missing, or are they just not part of the product?Those are critical components that make this “starter kit” nearly impossible to ….well, start.

Compacta, hermosa y muy completa
Kit de acuario con todo lo necesario para comenzar. Los acabados son excepcionales. Muy decorativa en mi escritorio. La luz directa sobre el acuario no molesta ya que esta muy bien escondida, iluminando realmente donde se necesita. Stilo muy contemporáneo, ,luce y decora sin sacrificar funcionalidad. El filtro integrado no hace ruido y solo noto su funcionamiento por el movimiento de la superficie del agua lo cual brinda oxigenación constante