London/Essex UKAPS winter get together!

[Arana]

Hiya,
I am pretty poor and have just realised where you live mark, so I may just go to MA in St Albans and fish heaven (aka the road with wildwoods).
By the time we leave MA in St Albans I think everyone will be a hungry so we can get lunch...

It's a bit of a bugger being a student

I'm not far from Dartford Tunnel won't you be going back that way to Portsmouth?
There will be nibbles and munch when we get back here and i will be sending out for food for all those that stay on for a social 😀

 

[Arana]

OK Garuf is arriving tonight, Tom and SKS are arriving at Rainham Station in the morning and everyone else is meeting at MA, is the correct? 😀

 

[Themuleous]

Sounds good to me 🙂 I take it everyone is sorted re getting from the train station?

Lisa - Im coming from Oxford, I'd be happy to give you a lift if you can get to or from Oxford?

 

[Tom]

Sorry I couldn't get there everyone, I spoke to Garuf ( I think ) but there were some sort of engineering works that meant I wouldn't be able to get there til too late really and I thought everyone would have gone! I hate public transport!

Tom

 

[TDI-line]

Sorry you weren't at the intitial meet Tom, maybe next time.

 

[Arana]

So after collecting sks and the non present Tom we headed out to mainden head, a journey that was longer than it should have been, you guessed it. we got lost!
After a call to Dan and Sam who came out to find us we found our way to St Albans Maidenhead Aquatics, the fish selection was good, Galaxies and motoro rays being particular favourites of mine (Garuf by the way). There was also Altums, a highly topical fish that unfortunately there small size of tank meant they where very timid.
the plant selecton is good but the choice avaiable was poor, bolbitis was the highlight but that was in terrible condition. As well was a bristling seection of submerged house plants.

Aside from the fish the tank selecton was good briliant infact but only if you have enough room to satisfy the multiple tank syndrome. Had a look at the hagen glo luminaires, terrible build quality.

After a breif chat the time came to bundle into cars and head over to wildwoods... where we lost Sam .

On arriving at wildwoods I noticed wood and went in search, everything was too big for my 11" cube, Defeated! My attention then turned to the ENOURMOUS malawi tank that dominates the enterance to the fish rooms. The selection was good but odd ball based, electric eels where the fish of choice this time as where some realy nice Betta Splenda's which Dan proceeded to snap up for the princely sum of £8.50.

I should mention by this point sam caught up after getting his wife to tell him the post code for his sat nav, of the mirth!

at this point I wil turn to my camera and review my pictures and see if any are any good and will follow this ong winded post with some pictures and the following part of the london essex adventure.

 

[Dan Crawford]

sounds great guys! Its a shame I coulnt make it. My quanderanceis why are you on the internet at this time of night? The founders (which never made it 😳 ) will vouch for me when I say that ukaps meetings don't end till 3am!
seriously mate, great job putting this on. My turn next I feel, midlands meeting.

 

[Lisa_Perry75]

Next meet is The Green Machine isn't it?

 

[Joecoral]

pictures?

 

[Arana]

sounds great guys! Its a shame I coulnt make it. My quanderanceis why are you on the internet at this time of night? The founders (which never made it 😳 ) will vouch for me when I say that ukaps meetings don't end till 3am!

8:27am and still going 😀

no not really but we was up untill about 2:30 holding the UKAPS Poker Tournament, Sam is now the official champion 😡

 

[TDI-line]

Next meet is The Green Machine isn't it?

Oh yes, 😀 😀 😀

 

[Arana]

We haven't quite finished yet but i just wanted to say i have had a really good time meeting everyone, Garuf and Sam are still here waiting for their bacon sarnies, 🙂 SKS left on the last train last night and TDI rushed off after Wildwoods as he'd purchased a stunning Beta and a bag of plants and wanted to get them home (hope they made it home ok Dan) Garuf has already started a write up above so i wont go over it again BUT... i was very impressed with MA, the biggest shop i have ever seen and they did have Tropica plants but it was let down a bit by the plant display. 🙁 Wildwoods seems to be very neglected at the moment as proved by their "Ultimate Plant Tank" (Pics and Video to follow) after Wildwoods we visited Ultimate Aquatics in Rainham and Tranquility in Chadwell Heath where Garuf bought some Amano's (currently living in a small tank in my kitchen) Then it was back to mine for some food, beer, planttalk and poker.

 

[Arana]

When Garuf finishes playing Transformers with my 8 Yr old i'll get him to upload his photos, I shot some video but i need to upload it to Utube or simular first 😀

 

[Azaezl]

What a shame I missed this, sounds like it was a great day / night! Oh well count me in for next time 😀

 

[Arana]

Arowana's trying to decide if your as stupid as you look.

Wildwoods have the best advice regarding sharks.

Marks "big" tank, its grand unveiling.

 

[Arana]

Big Altums, small tank.

I won't lie, the electric eels made me nervous.

I'm not one for marines but I really liked the seahorses.

One of Marks Amano decided it was going to pose in "in feilds of verdant green, an aquatic mirror of the world above". <--- anyone can do ADA poems. 😉

 

[Joecoral]

i was very impressed with MA, the biggest shop i have ever seen

you should see the one in cardiff! indoor section 7000sqf!

 

[Arana]

After breakfast Garuf, Sam and I decided we could fit just one more LFS into the tour and set off to Wet Pets in Romford, a shop i havn't been in for years and very good it was too, Sam and Garuf both found some lovely wood and i bought some more Nerites and a few plants. out of all the shops we have seen this weekend it had the healthyiest plants by far 🙂
Sam headed off home to Oxford from there and Garuf returned here to collect his stuff, i just dropped him at the station so i hope he has a safe journey home, he said he would post some more pictures later 😀

It was an absolute pleasure meeting you all, and i really enjoyed ths weekend, except losing at poker to Sam 😡

Thanks Everyone 🙂

 

[Themuleous]

Big thank you to Mark for putting us up for the night and hosting, was great to meet some more Ukaps people 🙂 As said the shop tour ended on a high for me as I got two lovely bits of redmoor wood for £20 (Bargain!!!!). Couldn't resist popping into my local MA on the way home and getting a load of new plants, so will be doing a complete strip down and rescape later today, so look out for an update of my 20g journal. While I was there I couldn't help getting a few extra things, so look out for a new thread in the 'off-topic' section 😉

Thanks again to Mark, top bloke as were the others 🙂

Sam

PS - yes that's right I'm the poker king!!!

 

[TDI-line]

Pictures come out well Mark. Nice work.

I can't believe i missed those Altums, i fancy a few of them in my tank.

Plants and Siamese fighter are doing well. Had a quick rescpae today, but proposed sumatra driftwood seemed to take up too much space and i was begining to get frustrated with the big tank. But have left it very rocky wih lots of stem plants, and a carpet of glosso and now E. tenullus.

Pictures may follow 😉 😛