ND Aquatics Aquarium Review

If you are looking for a custom made glass aquarium in the UK then ND Aquatics will definitely be on your short list of places to make it for you. As soon as you hear custom made aquarium or bespoke aquarium there is an instant perception that pound signs start to ring through your head however I think this perception should be quashed instantly – they do not necessarily cost as much as you think – take a look at our comparison between a custom made aquarium and off the shelf aquarium and decide for yourself.

The ordering process with ND Aquatics is very straight forward. Once you have decided your requirements and placed your order through the website or by phone everything will be confirmed and part/full payment taken with an approx. lead time. When ordering this tank we were given a lea time of 2 months however this was ordered at the start of December. Out of the blue late December we received an email with a suggested delivery date of 4th January – exactly 1 month after the tank was order, what a result!

Specification of the tank we ordered was:

• 48″ x 24″ x 24″ (396 litres) freshwater tank
  optiwhite glass on the front
  back and sides painted black
  cover glass
• Cabinet in Wenge finish at 30″ high
• Closed hood in Wenge finish

There are plenty of other options to chose from such as cabinet style, knob/handle style, where you require holes to be drilled on the stand/hood as well as any weirs or holes you require to be drilled on the tank itself. The possibilities are endless! The total cost for the aquarium including delivery (free when you order cabinet and aquarium at the same time) was £555.00.

The tank arrived as promised on 4th January 2014 with a guy in a van, he helped us with the tank and cabinet in to the house and put it in position for us and took away all the rubbish and we were left with the exciting prospect of a blank shell if you will – a new canvass to display some amazing fish.

It was clear straight away that the built quality of this tank and cabinet was nothing short of excellent, the holes drilled for plugs were filled with plastic covers and stand was split in to 2 with loads of feet on the bottom, the doors even have anti-slam hinges on them – we were very impressed. The stand also came complete with a polystyrene base already attached so there’s no need to provide this yourself which is an added bonus.

The hood was also very well made although this is our only constructive criticism, we would have liked there to be a lid stay attached to the lid so it didn’t have to be folded all the way back. This simply suits our situation though and some may prefer it not to have a lid stay. The option to have this might be a good addition to the customisation process though. The hood does have a great feature of having ventilation holes in the top too so any water that gets above the condensation covers has plenty of room to escape.

The tank itself was very good quality with glass sliders going across the main part of the tank and socket worthy holes left on the back corners so your wiring of equipment such as heaters and powerheads can be kept neat and tidy.

The ND Aquatics aquarium also comes with a 1 year warranty although this is simply against the tank itself failing although this is to be expected as it is unfair to expect them to cover you against it not being used and installed correctly.

From start to finish the process of ordering and delivery was reliable and friendly and the aquarium itself is the best we have seen both in quality and build and so the ND Aquatics aquarium gets a full thumbs up from Tropical Fish Site and a very high recommendation!

Here are a few images of the aquarium complete and set up as a Tanganyika fish tank with Tropheus and Sardine cichlids in there.