Aqueon vs Tetra starter kits

Buy the Tetra 20 gallon kit if the space and stand allow it: twenty gallons is more forgiving than ten, and its bundled 100 W heater is adjustable-class rather than preset. Buy the Aqueon 10 gallon kit if the space is small, and accept that its heater is preset. Both leave out a test kit and usable dechlorinator.

These two kits are on this page for a specific reason: their contents are published in enough detail to compare honestly. A surprising number of aquarium kits are sold on a photograph and a gallon figure, and we are not going to write a comparison of a box whose maker will not say what is in it.

Note that they are different sizes. That is not an oversight, it is the actual decision most people face at the shelf: the cheaper small kit or the bigger one next to it. We compare them on that basis.

What is in each box

The filter test, which is where they separate

Run each kit's filter against the turnover arithmetic. A community tank wants six to eight turnovers an hour, and rated flow overstates real flow by roughly 25 to 40%, so the figure to shop for is required flow divided by 0.7.

• Aqueon 10 gallon. Needs 60 GPH real, so about 85 rated GPH. The bundled QuietFlow 10 is rated 100 GPH. It clears, with headroom.
• Tetra 20 gallon. Needs 120 GPH real, so about 170 rated GPH. Tetra does not publish a rated GPH figure for the bundled Whisper PF 20 on the kit listing, so we cannot state whether it clears, and we are not going to guess. Treat it as sized to the tank rather than to the arithmetic, stock lightly, and plan on a second filter or an upgrade if you stock up.

The heater test

Aqueon's 50 W preset in a 10 gallon tank is 5 W per gallon, which is the band that supports roughly a 10 degrees F lift. Arithmetically that is correct for an ordinary room. The catch is the word preset: you cannot move the target. In a cold room, or for a species with a specific temperature requirement, you have no adjustment available and will be replacing it.

Tetra's 100 W in a 20 gallon tank is also 5 W per gallon and also covers about a 10 degrees F lift, and it is not sold as preset. For a first tank in a normal room, this is the more flexible of the two. Full wattage arithmetic on best aquarium heaters.

What both of them leave out

Identical, and it is the same list as almost every kit on the market: no test kit, no substrate, and a conditioner sample rather than a bottle. On a 20 gallon tank doing weekly 25% changes, that sachet is gone in about two water changes.

The test kit omission is the one that matters. Neither box gives you any way to see ammonia, which is the compound that kills fish in a new tank, and neither box tells you that. We list the omissions kit by kit on what starter kits leave out.

The verdict

If your surface will take about 225 lb, buy the Tetra 20 gallon kit. The extra ten gallons buys more forgiveness than any accessory in either box, and the heater is more flexible. Budget separately for filtration you have sized yourself.

If your space is a desk, buy the Aqueon 10 gallon kit. Its filter genuinely clears the arithmetic for that tank, which is more than many bundled filters do, and swap the preset heater only if your room runs cold.

Either way, add a liquid test kit and a full-size dechlorinator to the order, and then cycle the tank before buying fish.