# Bargain of the century



## martinmjr62 (29 Mar 2013)

Evening all, my LFS is closing down which is a real shame in itself. I went in there today to get some gravel for my daughter's garden as he's stripped out most of the tanks and is selling everything off cheap. My son used to work there and still keeps in touch with the owner so he got a good deal on the gravel. Whilst we were there we picked up a few odds and ends and the owner,knowing we keep planted tanks and shrimp etc asked us if we were interested in any Cherries. Knowing all the remaining stock, not that there's much left now,was now at half price I said yes let's have a look	 Well what can I say. He took us to the tank and said that we could have the whole lot for £40. Now this is the tank which is a fairly new one from the display rack with the under gravel filter system in it, the Anubis and slate and the gravel and god knows how many cherries ranging in size from tiny upwards and at least 50-100 of them, as I said all of it for £40. Just had to do it. Also got 4 Sterbi Cory's for a tenner. The tank is 450x 400x400 and even has a double sliding glass lid. Oh happy days.












I don't think the pics really show any shrimp so once I've sorted out some sort of light hopefully I'll get some shots of them, there's loads

Cheers
Martin


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## Martin cape (29 Mar 2013)

What a bargain. I'm struggling to get hold of 10 cherries lol.


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## tim (29 Mar 2013)

Lol I thought I got a good deal with 4 shrimp for £20  which lfs is this mate ? You do know your suffering quite badly with multiple tank syndrome now mate ha ha if you wanna offload any of those cherries in the future drop me a pm mate. Nice one Martin.


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## Shrimpy (29 Mar 2013)

I know where im shopping from now on


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## martinmjr62 (29 Mar 2013)

Martin it was too good to pass up mate, mrs just gave me THAT look when i got home with it

Cheers
Martin


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## Martin cape (29 Mar 2013)

martinmjr62 said:


> Martin it was too good to pass up mate, mrs just gave me THAT look when i got home with it
> 
> Cheers
> Martin



Haha I know THAT look. Same look as when ya buy summot else for the tank and change things!!


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## mafoo (29 Mar 2013)

Im currently trying to persuade my sister to take one of my fluval edges so i can put something nicer in.


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## martinmjr62 (29 Mar 2013)

Tim,Ashford Aquatics just outside the airport in Vermulans garden centre. he's sadly shutting it down after god knows how many years real shame.if anyone needs anything have a look various stuff all going cheap. selling all the tanks super cheap, preformed garden ponds at 50% off,reptile stuff,pond pumps some eheim parts but no filters,some new tanks50%,bird cages  allsorts really.not a massive choice of fish but there are some nice ones still there,but all the marine stuff has already gone.i think he's got a couple of RO units and various jewel t5 bulbs i think he's even got the Hi Lite units for jewel 180's with bulbs, second hand shop used pumps for the cold water tanks and large air filters with manifolds that used to run the display undergravel filters as well as food and treatments etc etc etc.like i said he just needs to shift as much of this as he can before he finally closes. Please anyone check him out if you can

Cheers
Martin


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## tim (29 Mar 2013)

Ill try and pop over there tomorrow, that's a shocker mate its been there for years I've always called in when I'm over that way shame mate  what a bargin though  love those sterbai mate.


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## martinmjr62 (29 Mar 2013)

Martin cape said:


> Haha I know THAT look. Same look as when ya buy summot else for the tank and change things!!


Martin,you mean you buy stuff and change things around .Surely not
I certainly dont think you can ever have too many plants,							 can you!!
Cheers
Martin


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## martinmjr62 (29 Mar 2013)

The Sterbai were the last 4 and they cried out for a new home.Settled in already mixing with the Panda's.
MA seem to be taking over round here mate, Waterlife seems to be getting smaller as well
As for the muliple tank syndrome, i've got some work to do to catch up with you mate, but i know what you mean. 
Addictive this tank lark,fancy a marine set up after seing my daughters boyfriends Red Sea tank for the first time today
Cheers
Martin


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## tim (29 Mar 2013)

That is true mate and a shame. What with chain stores and online retailers its got to be hard to cover the overheads. Shame for the consumer though mate.


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## martinmjr62 (29 Mar 2013)

tim said:


> That is true mate and a shame. What with chain stores and online retailers its got to be hard to cover the overheads. Shame for the consumer though mate.


Absolutely, it;s nice to have a bit of a choice rather than just one  main dealer who sells pretty much the same thing at all of their shops
Cheers
Martin


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## martinmjr62 (31 Mar 2013)

Hi everyone just a few pictures of the shrimp tank I got the other day. These were taken on my iPhone using my Oloclip lens I got for my birthday. Hopefully you'll get an idea of the scale of how many there possibly is in this tank and also the size of the shrimp compared to the grains of gravel 



















Cheers
Martin


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## martinmjr62 (2 Apr 2013)

Evening all just a quick update on the shrimp tank. Everything's looking good and I've added a piece of wood covered in some java moss taken from my edge. I've spent a long time staring at the tank even using a magnifying glass observing the shrimp in there day to day life and I still can't believe how many there are in there. Some them are so small you struggle to see them. I've just noticed one of the females is berried so there's going to be even more coming. Anyway a few more pictures















Cheers for looking
Martin


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## martinmjr62 (6 Apr 2013)

Morning all. Just a little update on the tank. Added a piece of wood with java fern from my Rio 180 as it was getting a bit crowded in there with all the plants I've added lately. More biofilm area for the shrimp. Noticed last night that there might be 3-4 berried females    Going to do a small 25% WC today. Some more pictures for you to look at






















Thanks for looking
Cheers
Martin


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## tim (6 Apr 2013)

You have far too many shrimp in there  you'll have to sell me some


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## emma crooks (16 May 2013)

Jealous, finding hard to get 10 lol


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## martinmjr62 (27 Nov 2013)

Evening everyone. It's been way too long since I've updated any of my journals, summer months tend to be busy with lots of other things to do and updating seems to get forgotten about, but now the cold dark evenings are here again I suppose it's about time I stated again. 
So after the purchase of the tank way back in April I think, I've not really done that much other than add some more wood and some crypts and Rotala  when I do a trim in the main tank. Every time I get some surplus moss from the  Edge in the kitchen , it goes into this tank and is tied to the wood. The shrimp all love the new moss when I add it in and it soon gets  covered in them.
I've added an Aquaray 400 led tile and bracket above the tank and it really makes the tank look better. I've got it on a controller set to 50% from 2-10 pm. I still do a 50 % water change every Sunday and just use tap water from the bathroom with conditioner added. I've never kept an eye on the parameters of the water but have recently got hold of a tds meter and when checked it came in at 360 , now I don't know if this is good, I've only got Cherri's in there and they seem happy enough and there are always berried females and lots of very small baby shrimp. They only get fed algae wafers now and again and biomax2. I add nothing else to the water which is London hard water. 
Any way time for a few recent piccies


Right tapatalk not letting me upload pics from the iPhone so I will sort this and post them soon

Thanks for looking 
Cheers 
Martin


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## martinmjr62 (27 Nov 2013)

Just realised I was using the old Tapatalk account and it wouldn't let me send photos anymore 
Serves me right for leaving it so long 
Hope you like the pics
Cheers
Martin


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## darren636 (27 Nov 2013)

That's some hard water you got. Nice shrimp


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## martinmjr62 (27 Nov 2013)

Cheers Darren,yep it is hard water here,and I don't know if changing it for RO  will have any benefit on the shrimp or just leave it as it is. Did think about doing 50/50  but not sure. As I said earlier there are lots of very small baby shrimp and always a couple of berried females, so they must be happy and I wouldn't want to change things to possibly make it worse ;(

Cheers
Martin


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## aliclarke86 (16 Dec 2013)

If ain't broke don't fix it ey  lovely looking tank mate

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## martinmjr62 (19 Dec 2013)

aliclarke86 said:


> If ain't broke don't fix it ey  lovely looking tank mate
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk


Just seen your comment , thanks very much. The tank is going to be closed down and all the stuff in it moved to a slightly smaller tank that fits in the cupboard in the living room , this ones in the spare room where you don't see it unless you go upstairs. Gonna be a nightmare catching all of the shrimp and transferring them over ;(

Cheers
Martin


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## martinmjr62 (24 Jan 2014)

Just a few update pictures of the shrimp tank. Still not closed it down and moved it to the new tank yet as I'm busy decorating the kitchen and don't have time at the moment. Shrimp are happy enough where they are any way so no rush. 










Cheers
Martin


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## LukeDaly (5 Feb 2014)

Nice buy man, as previously said looks like there is a few in there with my name on them  Pm me if you decide to sell a few


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