Site Offering Ada Products To The Uk Market

[oldwhitewood]

First of all please dont think of this as a spam message and delete it from the board or anything like that, I am in no way connected to ADA or AquaEssentials (more of that later). I posted this message to a few newsgroups a while ago and didn't get any response. So here it is again...

I wanted to let you guys know about http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/

If anyone is familiar with Japanese aquarist Takashi Amano and his
amazing Nature Aquarium World books you will
probably know about Aqua Design Amano, so far these products have only
been available outside of Japan in the US and some parts of Europe,
obviously shipping to the UK has been too costly to consider so far but
at the moment aquaessentials are taking steps to establishing a UK sales
point for this brand. If you have a look on the site there is a link to
ADA on the right, they're trying to gage customer interest at the
moment, let me say that honestly I have nothing to do with
Aquaessentials other than ordering stuff from them in the past, but as
an enthusiast of planted tanks and especially Takashi Amano and ADA the
prospect of ever using any ADA products has been extremely remote and
costly until now.

If they get enough response and orders for goods they can actually start
shipping ADA stuff on a regular basis, things like ADA's substrate
system is probably far better than something like Eco-Complete or
Flourite for example and you'll probably find pretty much the same price
if not cheaper. The products are of an incredibly high standard often
made of glass and steel, and represent an extremely high level of design
and functionality. (listen me I should work for ADA! ) Anyway If this
sounds interesting please have a look at this link

http/www.adaeuro.com/default.asp?c=English

and heres an example of a site doing this in the US -
http/www.aquariumdesigngroup.com/...er&wrap=ShopADG
http/www.aquariumdesigngroup.com/index.p...er&wrap=ShopADG

The more people we can get buying into this the easier ADA products can
be made available.

Thanks for reading this and if anyone could drop by the aquaessentials
site and have a chat with them that would be great.

Neil.

***************************************************************

Now the situation has changed slightly and they have enough interest from people that already buy stuff off the site to put in an order with ADA europe, based in italy. But I just think that everyone should have a look at these products and methods, if you have an interest in planted tanks and an appreciation of Mr Amano this is a really good thing. Most attractively for me is they can order aquajournals for £5.99, I only have four copies of this which I had to get my friend to buy me from a shop in San Francisco and ship them over to me, along with some ADA Brightly K fertiliser. Anyway check it out seriously, I've only posted this thread here because I see it looks to be quite UK based and there are recent threads. I'm starting off an ADA style tank journal myself and I'm going to have a look around the site now, I just wanted to post this thread first.

 

[Dubby]

Its good to see a site delivering ADA stuff in the UK. Thanks Neil.

 

[George Farmer]

Welcome to the Forum Neil.

Thanks for sharing that useful info.

I for one am a big fan of Amano's work, altough I have no personal experience of his products. I have heard the ADA substrate is very effective, although my personal belief now is that fertilising the water column effectively makes the expense of nutrient-rich substrates hard to justify.

I would love to hear what goes into the ADA liquid ferts. I imagine they are simply KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4, and traces re-hashed.

 

[oldwhitewood]

Thanks gf225

From my understanding of it initially in the setting up of the tank the plants are using the substrate to get established etc, after the first 4 weeks I think they start dosing liquid ferts, they have different ferts for different stages, Green Brightly Step 1, Step 2 etc. I'm going to follow this but eventually work towards dosing with the cheap dry ferts like potassium nitrate etc, depending on how the plants are doing. The light grain size and shape of the ADA substrate I believe is really good for carpeting plants like glossostigma etc. As you say I dont think there is much in the way of difference between ADA ferts and other stuff like Seachem but whats great is they have one of those push/squirt lids, like you would get on a bottle of handwash, you just push the thing a few times depending on your water volume, its a great idea and better than fiddling with filling a cap etc. Its things like this which make me really appreciate ADA stuff, things like using glass components inside the tank for filter pipes and glass diffusers. I dont know it just seems more elegant than a lot of the current aquarium technology, and the high design level too; I guess that's why I'm a fan.

 

[George Farmer]

I appreciate the high-end form/function aspect to the ADA products. If I had the money I would buy their aquariums but as for lighting, CO2 etc. I would stick with "common" stuff. As for ferts in particular I will never go back to buying liquid ferts. It's EI all the way (I assume you're familiar).

 

[oldwhitewood]

If you mean dosing dry ferts american style I am yes I think it's the way to go and what I will be following. With my setup I'm actually having a rimless and braceless tank made ADA style and building my own cabinet, but the other stuff like lighting and CO2, filtration etc wont be ADA as I can't afford it, however their substrate is pretty affordable so I see no reason not to use it, other things like their glass lily pipes to fit on the filter will have to be a treat I guess.

 

[George Farmer]

If you mean dosing dry ferts american style I am yes I think it's the way to go and what I will be following. With my setup I'm actually having a rimless and braceless tank made ADA style and building my own cabinet, but the other stuff like lighting and CO2, filtration etc wont be ADA as I can't afford it, however their substrate is pretty affordable so I see no reason not to use it, other things like their glass lily pipes to fit on the filter will have to be a treat I guess.

Sounds wonderful. Make sure you keep us updated - journal style would be great.

 

[oldwhitewood]

I will do, if it works or in fact becomes an algae ridden mess I will run away and hide

 

[George Farmer]

I will do, if it works or in fact becomes an algae ridden mess I will run away and hide

Read the pinned articles and algae won't be a problem, although I have a feeling you have a sound knowledge already .

 

[oldwhitewood]

Not really I've been reading through your journal on here, interesting stuff to see how everything turned out and the process you went through, very good reading! Well I better get on with some work now as I've done nothing all afternoon but browse here.

Its good to see a site delivering ADA stuff in the UK. Thanks Neil.

thanks dubby