UP Aquarium Supply products

by Robert Paul Hudson

UP Aquarium Supply is a Taiwanese manufacturer of aquarium products, many of which are perceived as being knock offs of well established brands. The products include canister filters, HOB filters, Aquascaping tools,  various C02 products such as atomizers, diffusors, power reactors, drop checkers, bubble counters, co2 regulators, paint ball co2 regulators, basic fish foods, Bee shrimp food, Bee shrimp substrate, plant substrate, among other products.

One of their newer products is called Aqua Soil… a knock off of ADA’s Aqua Soil for planted aquariums! They didn’t even bother changing the name!  I have no idea how it actually compares to the original.

Documentation with most of the products is very limited and mostly in Chinese. The limited English text or product descriptions are usually in very broken English and sometimes hard to read.  The company has no authorized distributor in the USA, or any kind of sales office. The products are directly imported into the USA from Asia by re-sellers: mostly Asian owned dealers/retailers who are familiar with the company and the Asian markets.

Many of their products, particularly the C02 products, are often found for sale on Ebay and sometimes Aquabid. Usually they are sold by people or businesses located in Asia.  Over the years some of their products have been sold in the USA by American online businesses: Monolith Marine Monsters, Marine Depot, and a few others. In my former plant business, I sold a couple of their power reactors, glass diffusors, mini atomizer, and aquascaping tools.  My experience was mixed.  The power reactors worked OK, but the plastic they were made of was thin and could crack easily if you were not careful. The glass diffusors were like any other glass diffusors: the ceramic stone would clog easily and sometimes never work at all. The mini atomizer I had to discontinue because almost every one I sold was returned.

Green leaf Aquariums, an American e-commerce seller based in Florida, is selling some of their products including the Aqua Soil!  http://www.greenleafaquariums.com/  It will be interesting to see how the Aqua Soil knock off is accepted in the planted aquarium community and  if it is accepted as a high end product.

Prices on UP products in the USA can vary greatly. It depends on how many middleman were in between the USA importer and where it was exported from.  The lowest prices will be from Ebay Asian sellers who will ship to you directly.

http://www.up-aqua.com/