JBJ Half Moon Biotope Nano 180 8 Gallon Aquarium

I purchased four of these for my betta fish. It's a great size tank. Very attractive but with most desk top filters the motors make a little too much noise. I live in a studio so I need it quiet. I had to go through the trouble of returning them all.

I upgraded to a 16 gallon Aqueon bow front tanks (purchased locally in town) with their included filter. So far it's been three weeks and the Aqueon filter is exceptionally quiet and the water is amazingly clear.

I would have given this product 5 stars if it were silent and effective and keeping the water crystal clear.

I've had this aquarium for a couple years. I purchased the matching stand along with it, I recommend it. I have 4 Glow Danios and 2 Glow Tetra. A group of red cherry shrimp (they've had babies), and several red ramshorn snails (not by choice). The aquarium is glass, which I prefer over acrylic.

In stock form, the filter was very quiet, I have this right next to my bed. I have Java Moss and Anacharis in the aquarium, so the filter would plug up pretty quick. When it was clean, the filter wasn't really that strong. I drilled the holes in the spray bar bigger, which helped a little bit. Instead of buying filters from JBJ, I ended up buying filter pad in bulk, and cutting my own (much cheaper).

The lighting is decent, but the filter sets up top in the back of the aquarium, so the back portion doesn't get much light. It uses an 11W bulb that appears to only be available from JBJ....

In modified form, this aquarium is top notch.

The ballast went out after a year or so. I found a replacement ballast (same size, higher wattage), and installed a Coralife 54069 Straight Pin Compact Fluorescent Lamp, 18-Watt, 10K (required a larger plug). It was a tight fit...but it fit. I would like to eventually install LEDs instead (custom board)--being able to select between white, blue, and UV (Glofish).

I've recently removed the stock filter, and installed a PX-360: Finnex All-in-one Compact Canister Filter. I placed the filter inside the stand, below the aquarium. The flow is much greater than stock (my fish were very happy), and it adds 0.6 gallons of water to the aquarium. With the stock filter gone, there are no longer any dark spots in the aquarium.

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I bought this tank for my bedroom, thinking the size would be small enough for my room but large enough to heat and cycle. I had a half moon betta. The current was much too strong for him, sending him all over the tank. The fish died an early death.

The tank is also too noisy for my comfort. It bothers me when I'm sleeping, and it's loud when I turn off the TV.

I'm planning to buy a Fluval internal nano filter. The flow rate/gph can be adjusted to be much slower than the JBJ Nano. I hope it's silent! Well, we'll see.

The tank is mostly well constructed, but I don't like that the light is partially blocked by the filtration unit. The matching stand particle board set off my chemical sensitivities. I bought a rectangular 10 gallon stand and but a stair tread or board across it. it would not fit otherwise.

I believe it really deserves 1.25 stars but I couldn't give it, so I gave it two.

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Unlike the other reviewer, I've found this tank to be very quiet. I am currently cycling it to be set up as a dwarf seahorse tank and I think it will work very well. The curved sides give beautiful clarity and the system seems to be well made. I'm looking forward to years of enjoyment from this tank.

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I've had this tank for almost two years and I agree with much of what everyone else said. The filtering system is not great it does not have much gph and it's a very simple filtering system with nozzles that spray over a filter pad covering biomedia. I have a 100mL Purigen bag in the filter tray (it fits nicely) as my driftwood continues to color my water even after this long period of time since set-up. Because the light is so close to the filter pad, I get a lot of green algae build up on the filter pad which is aggravating. I have already replaced the compact fluorescent light bulb once and also the plastic cover of the bulb because the splash off the filter pad shoots water up on the light cover, caking the cover with mineral build-up. My pump also died after about a year and I had to purchase that proprietary part. The filter arm connections have also gotten loose over time which means any debris in the filtering system builds up pressure and more than once I've had a connection come lose which shoots water out the back of the tank. During the next year I think I'll replace the filtering system entirely and get a better light. Bottom line the tank itself is a beautiful curved glass but the filtering system and light leaves a lot to be desired.

UPDATE: I finally decided to change out the filtering system based on an ideas on an online forum. I got a Eheim Classic 2211, which is a small, standing canister filter. It works wonderfully I don't use the spray bar and I do turndown the flow on outake side using the flow lever. Got rid of the old tank filtering system and filter bracket that ran across the top of the tank. It looks great now the light is unobstructed with no splashing of water on the light cover. No more algae gunk build up on the old filter! I put the media in the Eheim Classic in small mesh bags to facilitate cleaning of the canister filter when needed. Now I really like this tank this is way it should have been sold!