Shopping Around Advice

[fozzy_wozzy_woo]

Ok so i am now 3/4 along my aquarium project and i am coming into the expensive stage of buying all the little things.

Ok so what I did was to go to my LFS and make a list of everything i needed and purchased a few items.

Then I went home with my goods and i was quite chuffed as I returned my RO system as i have purchased a better one from the sponsor of this site.
One of the things i purchased was Bog wood. Now this bog wood cost me €25. Then yesterday i was walking in a garden centre and found they had a pet section. In the pet section I found they had loads of aquarium things. One of the things I found was Bog wood and it was €5 - €10 per piece instead of €25 - €50 per piece. I made sure that it was the same type of wood and I purchased three pieces.

Because of this i have saved almost €65 totally.

So over lunch I went into another garden centre close to my work and found they had the same plant food and fertilisers that the LFS has. Again it was cheaper by almost half.

Yes i know the LFS has some cheap things but i think they lour you into a false sense of security with special offers they have in the shop. You see these special offers that you know no one else can match and then you think every thing is cheap.

From what i have found in the garden centres and DIY shops it has saved me around €400 from the €1300 I was looking on spending..

I have also seen in the First Garden centre that they had fish. I had a look and they all looked fat and happy so i asked about the fish and they didn’t know what they were tanking about. So i picked up 10 Cory's for €19 and the same in the LFS would have been €42... so they are sitting in my Hospital tank. but they all look nice fat and happy..

So the moral of this post is go to your local shops and you may just find a bit of a surprise... Hopefully all good....

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah DIY shops are good, my local garden centre has a fish bit though and it's well overpriced

also go to stonemasons or builders merchants for stones, don't get them from the LFS it's a right rip off........ or just go somewhere you can find them naturally.......... no i don't mean robbing from your neighbours garden

 

[fozzy_wozzy_woo]

Yea right i needed 5 x 25kg bags of grit for my tank and i picked them up for €5 per sack.... in the LFS it was €35


HA HA HA

 

[Talz]

You guys should have seen this one place I swear if memory serves me right that like food would be $20 and a neon was like well $2-$4 for one and all their fish were usally dead in the tank and if they wernt they soon would be NOTHING I got from that place lasted

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

One of my lfs sells 1-2ft peices of driftwood for £10 each, while my local garden centre sells 3-4ft long peices of driftwood for the same price- same goes for rocks and gravel, far cheaper at garden centre.
The only thing i'd like to add is be very wary of buying grit/gravel from garden centres- i have heard quite a few stories of people buying gravel from garden centres, and putting it in their tanks only to find massive ph fluctuations and dying fish and things.

 

[Talz]

One of my lfs sells 1-2ft peices of driftwood for £10 each, while my local garden centre sells 3-4ft long peices of driftwood for the same price- same goes for rocks and gravel, far cheaper at garden centre.
The only thing i'd like to add is be very wary of buying grit/gravel from garden centres- i have heard quite a few stories of people buying gravel from garden centres, and putting it in their tanks only to find massive ph fluctuations and dying fish and things.

Well I guess they dont sell it with fish in mind so certain things are best to stay away from in a non pet store unless you REALLY know what your doing

 

[fozzy_wozzy_woo]

YEa i understand the grit thing but all you have to do is research which stones are good for aquariums then buy the grit that comes from the stones you want. Making sure that the name one the bag relates to the type of stones.
Then making sure that you really clean the stones before placing them into the tank.