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From San Francisco to St Albans

danielgphelps

danielgphelps

Seedling
Joined
30 Dec 2011
Messages
14
Location
St Albans
Hello,

I've just moved to St Albans with my family from San Francisco, CA. Part of the move involved breaking down my two tanks and selling off the livestock and the electronics locally. I was able to ship my tank and a few random pieces, but I will essentially be starting again from scratch when everything arrives.

I found being a member of the SFBAAPS was a good way to meet people who were also interested in planted tanks and I wanted to meet folks in the area. I'd love to learn what people have in their tanks here, what's available locally, and where the best places to get things are.

Out of the gate I will need to start looking for a canister filter, a light for my 60P, a heater, and eventually driftwood, rocks, and livestock. I used to have manzanita available locally but it appears the best local wood would be heather if I wanted to collect myself. I have some time until the tanks arrive, most likely until March, and hope to catch up on some reading here and learn what I can in preparation.

I was most interested in shrimp tanks and my last tank consisted of mixed plants (susswassertang, mosses, rotala, etc.) nerite snails, and SS+ grade CRS. I have also had yellow shrimp, RCS, blue tigers, and bred celestial danios for a while.
 
check out the sponsors on here for some of the stuff you're after (plus discounts) otherwise I believe being down south you're not a million miles away from some maidenhead aquatics shops (unlike me :( )
 
Daniel, please check LFKC. Although you're strictly speaking outside London this is your local club.

There are plenty of people on this forum (including me) that are well into keeping shrimp. Drop me a line if you want to know about suppliers.

Welcome BTW. I hope you brought a big pile of AFA rare mosses with you to sell.
 
Locally to you is a large Maidenhead Aquatics and the smaller Herts Fisheries. A 25 minute ride will get you to Crews Hill where there are several shops.
 
Welcome to UKAPS and hope you enjoy the UK :)
 
Welcome to UKAPS. Theres a few members from St Albans as far as I know :)
 
Thanks for the welcomes and apologies for the delayed response. Had some issues getting all settled with my family and getting the response notifier working. I made it to the UK and just had all my belongings delivered after 3 months without them. That includes my ADA tank and what I could bring with me, which isn't much.

I went to Herts Fisheries today to get some things for my sons goldfish tank so it can begin cycling. They have a decent supply for basic good and a full range of Fluval "shrimp gear". They only had RCS in terms of livestock though. I grabbed some Fluval stratum to top up the aquasoil I was able to bring with me. For anyone in the area, the fluval gear is all on sale, so the food, stratum, water conditioner "shrimp safe", and the full tank setup are all reduced.

I wasn't able to find the necessities there, so I ordered a new filter, light, and heater online. Once they arrive I can start a cycle. If anyone is localish, I'd love to see about any trimmings so I can help it get established. At some point I will also look for local CRS breeders to try and get a nice shrimp tank going. It will be a while to cycle and I will need to learn the new water tricks. San Francisco water is amazingly easy to use, no calcium build up, decent pH, etc. I imagine doing it the way I have for years won't necessarily work.
 
Maidenhead Aquatics in St Albans now have a dedicated section for shrimp livestock. It's about 3 miles from Herts Fisheries if you haven't been there yet.
 
Excellent! Thanks Dave. I didn't make it there today, but do plan to go soon. I'm estimating at least 2 months before I can start thinking of shrimp though I could reduce that if I get a full planted tank going. I haven't seen mosses here yet. The only thing I managed to hang on to are some marimo balls. I don't even have presoaked driftwood yet.
 
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