While I'm on the subject of pets, if you're looking to buy a fish aquarium and you're thinking about shelling out $100 or more for the Marineland Eclipse System 12, don't. Go to Walmart and buy the Aqua Culture, 14-gallon starter kit for $50 instead. My mom gave me the Eclipse aquarium the Christmas before last. Despite what you may read online, the aquarium did not require less maintenance than other brands. In fact, it required more maintenance. It was constantly covered in brown algae, and I had to do a partial water change once a week. I also had to keep a kitchen towel folded up behind it, as the filter would randomly spit water out the back on a regular basis, no matter how high or how low the water level.The light fixture burnt out on the Eclipse a few months ago, and it costs about $70 to replace it. Not wanting to pay that much for a stupid light, I asked my mother to get me a new, non-Marineland aquarium for Christmas this year to replace both the light and the defunct aquarium. She got it, and so far I haven't had the first problem with it. The Aqua Culture aquarium has a biological filter, just like the Eclipse, only in a nonspinning, bag form. The replacement cartridges are cheaper and easier to find than the Eclipse ones, which is an added plus. The entire filter mechanism is much quieter than the Eclipse filter--I can't tell you the number of times that I woke up to my Eclipse filter sounding like a helicopter--and it seems to keep the water cleaner. I have yet to see the first sign of brown algae, and I have only seen the tiniest bit of green algae on the ornaments and plants. Furthermore, I just got through cleaning the gravel, and very little food floated up. In comparison, the water that I vacuumed up in the Eclipse was always full of uneaten food and waste.
The only downside of the Aqua Culture aquarium is that it's made of glass, not plastic. Consequently, if you drop it, it's going to break. Otherwise, it's a hands-down improvement over that overly priced, acrylic piece of poo now resting on the bench in my garage.
