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Hi There

drewmill

Seedling
Joined
13 May 2021
Messages
2
Location
London
Good Day All
I am about to move to the UK with my wife and daughter. we are going to stay in the Essex region.
I have kept various low maintenance tropical fish tanks and plants for 30 years now. I seemed to develop a knack for breeding and raising various corry breeds particularly Sterbais. My daughter received her first guppy tank when she was 2, she is almost 5 and heaven help you if you try to feed or do anything in the tank without her approval. in a year I will get her to start helping me with water changes etc. she uses the fish tank light as a night light and if the light timer goes off too early wakes up. her fish tank keeps monsters at bay :).

My Wife (who is going to work for the NHS) who did not care for fishtanks has fallen in love with them as well. and I want to get a planted tank with pea puffers going, as she absolutely loves them but we decided to move and so did not set up a tank here. both girls find the tanks very calming.

I have had to let all the other tanks bar my daughters go for the upcoming move and I know it is something I am going to have to set up for my daughter pretty quickly once we are in the UK. I think the change in lifestyle a tank will also bring a bit of normalcy into her life.

I have looked online but have found the same online shops come up on google over and over. compared to prices in South Africa, basic 60 liter tanks (I like to build the tank cherry picking the filter, lights etc) are the equivalent of 10 to 15 pounds. all I can really find are branded tanks with internal filters etc much higher in price. if I search float glass panels these also come up "pricey", as I have made my own tanks before and would try this as well if ready made tanks turn out to be a bit expensive for a new immigrant into the country. I know I cant compare but I am not sure if these are good value for money.

regarding the fishkeeping I prefer the patient game, letting the cycle takes it course (fishless), and letting plants and animals settle before adding more or changing things. I do like the DIY aspect and once the two above tanks are going have some plans for some larger tanks. besides the cycling of the tank I believe whole heartedly in quarantine, normally keeping livestock and plants from 4 to 6 weeks if there are no issues. after wiping a tank out from not quarantining I wont compromise on this and have never lost a display tank or its inhabitants since.

so after a brief intro and statements please could you help with advice on:
1. what would a basic 2 foot fishtank without anything normally go for?
2. are there decent shops in the Essex region that I can support that are good value for money, with a decent selection of livestock and hardware that are healthy (I had to request imported female guppies here as the locally bred ones were very weak, think they were more feeder fish being sold as tank specimens)
3. I have heard there are fishclubs in the UK for like minded people to get together and swop/learn etc from each other. with the exception of the current Covid situation do any such clubs exist in the Essex region?
4. I have registered on a number of online UK forums as I am also interested in setting up a marine tank with a few tropical fish tanks (all tropical tanks planted as I love how they assist with the nitrogen cycle and they just look better to me in the tank over plastics). by far the diversity and selection of livestock is much better in the UK than South Africa so I am excited to get to play with species that I cant get easily here.
 
Welcome 🙂 looks like your a very all together family with the hobby. A look at the tutorials and members journals will give you some good info
 
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