Discovery Crystal Aquarium, Grow Your Own Crystal Model Science Kit

This is an excellent educational toy for kids! My boys really loved it so much! The water did start to get a little gross after a week, but I guess that is to be expected. The instructions were certainly easy to follow and understand. The crystals did not grow as high as we had thought that they would though. We are not sure why that is. They did grow, and it was very cool to watch them grow. Some of them even grew immediately. The crystals are beautiful colors and with a lot of variety. It was a fun project for my husband and sons as they prepared the solutions for the crystals in the tank. The set came with a really awesome poster with lots of facts and interesting things to know. I would like to get more products from this series for my kids. I think it is a very good value for the price that you pay. I would highly recommend this product to anyone who is looking for an entertaining and brain-boosting toy for the kids in your life! It especially a very nice present to give to a child. You will not be disappointed at all.

My son is really into rocks and crystal, so this kit caught my eye. Overall, it was an ok product. Our crystals didn't grow as long as those pictured, but that may be because he broke down the main rocks into too small of pieces. It did state in the directions to make them into the size of green peas, but I think if they were larger, the crystal would have reached higher. My biggest issue comes in with the directions. While the directions were written easy enough for an 11 year to read, I did find some of the directions too complicated to follow... 1) You are given a bag of larger "growing rocks" in different colors that need to be broken down (as stated above). However, there is a warning sign on the bag that it is an eye and skin irritant. Breaking the rocks down was not easy. I had my son put on plastic gloves and goggles and use a small hammer to do so, but it made some of the rocks too powdery. It worried me that the powder could be easily inhaled. 2) In addition to the 2 bottles of growing solution, you need 0.8 quart (25.6 oz) of lukewarm water to mix together in a glass container. I did not have an easy time finding a vessel in my house that would hold that amount of water and be made of glass since I didn't want to use something that we use for food/drink given that it is a chemical. I ended up finding an old flower vase made of glass that worked out ok. Luckily my fridge can count the number of ounces when filling up from the water dispenser to aide me in getting that exact amount of water needed. It's a cute concept, but I think it was more complicated than I was expecting. My son did enjoy the activity, but it's kind of a one-and-done.

So we got this and decided to do it over the weekend. I helped because it said for ages 12 and up and my kids are not quite that old yet. We open it up and I start reading the instructions only to realize that there's quite a few things that you will need that they do not provide, and nowhere was it printed anywhere on the outside of the box. Had they told me I would need these things on hand for when I got ready to do this project I would not have been so upset. The first thing it said I would need that I did not have is a large glass container of some kind that has to hold at least 26.5 oz of liquid plus both bottles of solution. Then it started talking about drink stirrers but I don't know of any drinks stirrers that long unless your glass container is very shallow. So I compromised and used two of my glasses, straws and a measuring cup so that I can get all of the liquid measured out, mixed, stirred and poured into the aquarium. For some reason it also wants you to use aluminum foil to put on the very bottom of the aquarium, and warned you multiple times that the crystals are not allowed to touch the sides of the aquarium. Aluminum foil is another one of those things that was not provided but that I needed in order to do this project. I think I wouldn't mind so much if I had been warned of that on the outside of the box so I can have everything out and ready instead of having to scramble to try to find things that fit what they were asking for. Eventually we found everything we needed and began constructing the aquarium. Next we had to somehow cut the crystals that were provided with into pea-sized pieces. We were then instructed to put them on top of the aluminum foil in the bottom of the aquarium without letting the crystals touch either each other or the sides of the aquarium. Once we did that we had to mix up the water and the solution. I used straws because that was what I had that was long enough, and then poured the solution/water mix into the aquarium without moving the crystals or spilling to much of the water solution either. Apparently the solution will stain anything within just a minute or two if you get it on any kind of wood, laminate, clothing or whatever so make sure that you read all the instructions and read that part before you start putting this together or you may just accidentally ruin your table. After all of this mess you have to wait six hours for the crystals to fully grow or come close to being fully grown and then add the rest of the crystals and grow them as well. In the beginning I thought this would be a really great project and a lot of fun, instead it was frustrating and they didn't even grow that well. I would not recommend based solely on the fact that it doesn't tell you that you would need these extra materials on the outside of the box. I personally got frustrated with the fact that they wanted you to have this great big giant glass container that I just don't have so I had to figure out how to improvise.

These didnt grow like we expected. The aquarium itself isnt big for the rocks you are supposed to put in. Putting half in and the other half 6 hours later. This is what we ended up with.

This was my second time ordering on line at Walmart. The first was for me to pickup. I never received my items as I could not find anyone who could tell me where the pickup area was. My granddaughter later went to Walmart and someone showed her where pickup was and it is almost hidden. My second ordering involved three items,two of which were wrong! I ordered a start up kit for an aquarium,what was deliver was a rock growing kit. The other item was a 5 gallon aquarium,what I received was a 4 by4 glass container,I really don’t understand how anyone could think that was a 5 gallon aquarium . Can you explain this to me. I am 87 years old and have health problems that keep me from shopping in person so I depend on delivery. I decided to keep the rock growing kit,but if yo want this glass container,you need to have someone come and get it! I will not pay for an aquarium and I need for you to either ship the correct items or refund my account,your choice.

My 5 year old chose this crystal growing kit and bought it with her very first $20 that she earned over time. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out anything like the pictures on the box. I read over the directions several times before starting, measured the water out to the exact amount stated in the instructions. Also put a layer of foil along the bottom of the (quite small) plastic aquarium as they suggest. We mixed the 2 solutions provided with the water and carefully poured it into the aquarium….small string-like growth began almost immediately, which was exciting. But the growing seemed to stop after a couple hours. We added the rest of the crystals and waited another 6 hours…..still barely any growth on all of them. I don’t know if the growing rocks we got were just duds, but it definitely did not end up like we had expected. I’ll provide pictures so you can see what I mean and decide for yourself if you want to try it out.

Bought this for our grandson for christmas and the rocks only grew about 1/2” Contacted the company and they sent a better kit for free with proof of purchase so very happy with the outcome. Not sure if it was a faulty kit or why it didn’t work

I had hoped that this would be a really fun rainy day activity for my kids. I could not have been more wrong. Supposedly the first set of rocks would grow in 6 hours and then you add more. Ours stopped growing after about 20 minutes and even after leaving them in the solution for 24 hours they never grew any more. This was an extremely underwhelming activity.

My daughter was so excited to get this kit opened up and start growing crystals. She took so much time setting everything up and following instructions. I handled the solution and rocks because it has warning labels all over the place about not getting it on your skin. Unfortunately, the moment I carefully started pouring in the solution, the foil shifted around and floated up and then the crystals only grew about an inch - maybe 1/2 inch. Overall, a huge disappointment!

This is more of a review of Walmart delivery, not the actual product. I am shocked that both the selector and the delivery person thought delivering a waterlogged, damaged, and practically open box was acceptable. It hadn't even been raining, so it's not like it was left on the porch in the rain. I would have rather them cancel the order with an "unavailable" status than deliver such a damaged item.