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Aquarium manufacturers, any difference?

Beeman

Members
I was making plans to go to HOT to pick up my next tank, a 75g. I know they carry Deep Blue. I have a DB 90, no problems. But, I was in my local PetSmart yest., and see they have a 75 Top Fin at a close enough price to make it worth forgoing the hour drive to HOT. My question, is this brand of the same quality as Deep Blue? Is there much of a difference among the top selling manufacturers like DB, Top Fin, Perfecto etc?
 

Andrewtfw

Global Moderators
Top fin's tanks are made for them by one of the larger manufacturers. It will be a quality tank. As good as anything else out there, besides maybe vintage oceanic tanks.

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JLW

CCA Members
Top Fin is manufactured by Aqueon, who used to be AGA (but changed their name when they decided to venture into making things other than aquariums ... personally, I think this is about as smart as Coca Cola deciding that, "Hey, we make juice, too! Let's start calling ourselves Drinkeon!" and cancelling the Coke label .... but I digress). They're good, quality tanks.

You will run into some small differences between tanks, though. The dimensions between tank manufacturers are not QUITE the same. For instance, an AGA and Perfecto 10-gallon are the same height; a deep blue one is about a half inch shorter. Not a big deal, but if you have two different brands on a rack together, they look funky.

Additionally, you'll run into some small problems trying to fit tops from the wrong brand onto the tanks. A Perfecto top will probably not fit a Deep Blue tank, or an AGA, etc. It might, depending on brand, but there might be a small difference that prevents them from fitting.

There are also differences in quality, especially if you go with some of the more ... off ... brands. However, the Big Three makers, AGA, PF, and Deep Blue, are all of good, comparable quality. For the record, Aqueon is owned by Central Pet and Garden, one of the largest pet product brands out there (they own TFH, Coralife, Kent, and a host of others, as well as Aqueon and Oceanic). Perfecto was purchased by Marineland, which later became part of United Pet Groups, which also owns Tetra, Aquarium Systems, and Jungle. Deep Blue is fairly new, and was created by Royal Pet, a large mostly East Coast distributor -- Central's #1 competitor in this area. They're a division of Spectrum, which owns United Pet Group, meaning all of the above (as well as some other interesting companies, Rayovac, Spectracide, Black and Decker, even George Foreman ... that's right, the same folks who make your aquarium filter made your Foreman Grill). So, DB will be very similar to PF or MRL tanks.

And of course, in the past few years, Hagen (Fluval) has entered the market as well with their own tanks.
 
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