Reef Cost in Europe?

[Instar]

Anyone who has lived in Europe; what is the relative price of equipment, coral and fish when compared to the cost we see here? More, less, about the same? Are the selections better, not as good? Depends where you are maybe? Is there a luxury tax in any country for reef keepers? The German lights are probably cheaper?

[LoneStar]

Vacation coming up perhaps?

[tony]

i lived there for 3 years and not once saw a marine store. the one fish place i did finds prices were extremely extravagant for fresh water stuff. this was in the netherlands.

[cpreefguy]

I read on RC that Purple tangs over there are only like $15, It would be interesting to find out though

[Instar]

Vacation coming up perhaps?

You just never know. I saw some pictures of a large wholesalers tanks from France. I just wondered how they compared to our prices. Some things are very expensive there, others not. Wondered about this hobby. When I went through Warsaw, I didn't think to look for a store front. What was I thinking about..silly tourist! I figured with all the advances in theory for reef keeping as well as top line equipment coming out of Europe, there has to be a lot of activity there.

[cpreefguy]

Im betting Germany would have some top of the line stores, do you ever go to www.zeovit.com ?
They have some pics of the stores in Europe and theyre bretty cool, you would probably get a pretty good response to your question on that forum since its worldwide.

[MattK]

i lived there for 3 years and not once saw a marine store. the one fish place i did finds prices were extremely extravagant for fresh water stuff. this was in the netherlands.

Where in the Netherlands?

[tony]

Where in the Netherlands?


maastricht

[MattK]

Where in the Netherlands?


maastricht
Oh, you were close to the the Belgian border. I lived in Wassenaar, about 10 miles from Den Haag, for 2.5 years.

Just to add to the conversation, I never saw an aquarium shop in all my travels. The only pet shop I saw had dogs, cats, and birds.

[LoneStar]

Vacation coming up perhaps?

You just never know. I saw some pictures of a large wholesalers tanks from France. I just wondered how they compared to our prices. Some things are very expensive there, others not. Wondered about this hobby. When I went through Warsaw, I didn't think to look for a store front. What was I thinking about..silly tourist! I figured with all the advances in theory for reef keeping as well as top line equipment coming out of Europe, there has to be a lot of activity there.

When I breese through ReefCentral, I do see some amazing stuff coming out of Europe in way of reef tanks. I know (and I'm sure you do too) that a lot of quality equipment comes from Germany. If your over there, you might get lucky in getting equipment a little cheaper. Although they may just sell the European standard for electronics (different voltage/plug). You could get convertors but that may just offset the savings you may get.

I know in reading the thread on ReefCentral, Japan Reef in the large reef tank forum, he spent a lot of money to make American made equipment run on the Japanese electrical system.

[Markster]

I was in London and Barcelona in April and did a lot of walking through these cities and did not see one FS.