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Importing Acrylic Aquariums to Canada

By Theo Wyne

Original to Aquarticles

Editor's note: Although the following article is most relevant to Canadian Aquarists, people living in other countries can still save a lot of money making group buy purchases.

As a Canadian aquarist, I have followed the recent rise of the Canadian dollar against its US counterpart with interest. It has been a long time since shopping across the US border has really made much sense. By the time you factored in exchange rates and travel costs, not to mention long waits at the border, it just wasn't worth it. With our currencies trading close to par, however, suddenly there are real deals to be had. And with the power of shopping by internet, travel costs and border waits need not hold you back. Ah, but what about shipping costs you ask? By pooling your purchases together with like-minded aquarists, you can save a bundle. Such "group buys" or "group orders" allow aquarists to save on shipping and often to gain a further price discount. Suddenly shopping in the USA by internet can make a lot of "cents" indeed! (pardon the pun)

When it comes to buying aquarium fish, or smaller items like fish food and aquarium accessories, I'd sooner support a local fish store than go through the trouble of shopping in another country (in person or by internet). I'd save my shopping in the USA now for expensive specialty purchases. High cost canister filters, protein skimmers, metal halide lighting systems, CO2 injection systems, and acrylic aquariums are all good candidates for cross-border internet shopping right now. In this article I plan to focus on purchasing acrylic aquariums.

Setting up a Group Buy for Acrylic Aquariums

If you have been wanting to stock out a fish room in Canada with new acrylic aquariums, there has never been a better time to purchase through a group buy from the USA. Prices can be had that are 50-75% lower than you'd be looking at if you purchased retail in Canada, even from one of our chains of big box aquarium stores. Here is the formula to making such a purchase:

- First, contact reputable acrylic aquarium manufacturers in the USA. In my case I chose to go with www.tenecor.com. Next, find out from the company whether they have any dealers in your geographic area. Chances are they will not, since traditionally they do not do much business in Canada. You will probably find that you can in fact become their agent if you want to.

- Second, once you have a copy of the company's catalogue and an understanding of their dealer pricing system, you are now ready to place an online add in a local aquarium club forum. If you are a serious aquarist, you probably already know what these forums are. If you need help finding an internet forum for your area, I'm sure people at your local fish club can help (as would a rudimentary internet search). Place your advertisement for a "Group Buy" in the appropriate section of the internet forum. Your local fish club and the classified add section in the newspaper can also help find you others to join your purchase.

- Third…the hard part, assembling the order. You will have people contacting you who may want very complex custom aquariums. If you are comfortable dealing with such requests (typically from reef keepers) include them in your group order. Remember that you will be acting as an intermediary between all of the customers and the company. If you know a lot about tank plumbing layouts, sump design, etc, go for it! Otherwise, you can insist that people choose only stock set-ups, in which case putting the order together is much easier.

Top view diagram of a standard 150 gallon show tank

Top view diagram of a standard 180 gallon show tank

- Fourth, collect payments from everyone, place the order, wire the payment, and wait 4-6 weeks for delivery.

In late 2005 I did a large group buy of acrylic aquariums from. The tanks were delivered to a residential address from which most buyers came to pick up their purchases. There was one lady who had special ordered a custom tank for raising sea-clams. It measured 4 feet by 4 feet and had a center overflow. She lived out of town and so we arranged to have another shipping company come to pick up the tank and forward it to her up in the far north of British Columbia. In the end all customers were satisfied and we all saved many hundreds, and even thousands of dollars over what we would have paid locally. My impression of the tanks we imported is that they were a very good investment.

Unloading  six large tanks, a stand and canopy

Busy unloading tanks

180 gallon tank alone

Stand and canopy for a 150 gallon tank

Getting ready to set up the 150 gallon tank with stand and canopy

I am currently planning on building a new and bigger fish room in the near future. I intend to purchase about 1200 gallons of tanks, enough for a group order in my own right. By advertising my order and encouraging others to make it bigger, however, the shipping costs can be greatly reduced. These savings will allow me to buy more tanks than I could otherwise afford. As a reef-keeper once told me, "ours can be an expensive hobby." Thankfully, with a bit of creative thinking, favourable exchange rates, and cooperation between hobbyists, these costs can be greatly reduced.

Note: If you are looking for a smaller tank (anything under 50 gallons), I would not really recommend purchasing an acrylic tank from abroad. Your local fish store should be able to help you out just fine, and the advantages of acrylic over glass may not be worth the price difference. The recommendations in my article are intended for those people looking to buy larger aquariums, where the lighter weight of acrylic over glass is dramatic.