Fishtastic is an exciting new all in one nano aquarium that really took us by surprise. The concept of nano all in ones is well over a decade old so youd’ think we’d seen it all by now, but leave it to Pro Clear Aquatics to make a novel new design for this product category.
With the vast majority of Nano AIO using a filter built into one side or the back of the aquariums, the Fishtastic takes a completely different approach by putting the filtration underneath the aquarium. The entire bottom mounted filtration system fits into a sliding drawer in the spirit of a true overflow drain and sump system.
The Fishtastic has a volume of five gallons, while the drawer-sump has a capacity of 1.5 gallons, and a handy window so you can see the water level inside it without having to slide out the drawer. The tank comes equipped with a feed pump to power the whole thing and one really awesome touch is that the primary mechanical and chemical filter for the sump is a standard filter pad for Aqueon power filters, readily available anywhere Aqueon is sold.
Of course the sump is too short to fit in any reasonable kind of protein skimmer but at only five gallons in volume it’ll be easy enough to do basic water changes to keep the water quality in check. Finally, the system is lit with a decently bright LED light which is included, and isolated from moisture for longevity and durability.
These are basic bright indicator-style LEDs which are low power, but should be plenty bright enough to grow most corals and plants in a tank this small. The cluster includes mostly cool white diodes with a few pieces of blue but we are lobbying Pro Clear Aquatics, here officially, to invert the blue:white color ratio as a saltwater option to make the Fishtastic even more reef-ready right out of the box.
The one and only design detail that we aren’t thrileld about is the use of opaque white acrylic on the wall opposite of the overflow drain, preventing it from being enjoyed in a peninsula style orientation. However at just $50 for a really great plug and play aquarium we truly can’t complain, and imagine that many of you, especially the DIYers, will thoroughly enjoy an AIO nano tank that is more like a typical reef tank than 99% of the AIOs currently out on the market.
