Postage and Delivery
Finest Aquatics offers free delivery to UK customers who spend over £39.00 on our website (excluding Livestock items). Free delivery is available for UK customers only. For orders under £39.00, we have a small delivery charge of £2.50 for Royal Mail Tracked 48 delivery. This service can also be upgraded to Royal Mail Tracked 24 or DPD next day delivery for a small cost.
UK Delivery Options
For UK based customers, we have various delivery options which can be selected at the checkout.
1. Free Postage - Our choice of Royal Mail Tracked 24 or DPD Next Day (courier selection depends on order value and shipping location and is chosen by Finest Aquatics) - FREE when spending over £39.00
2. Royal Mail Tracked 48 - £2.50
3. Royal Mail Tracked 24 - (Orders under £39) - £2.99
4. DPD Next Day - £4.99. (Please Note: DPD only deliver Monday to Friday, so orders shipped on this service on Fridays will not arrive until Monday).
5. DPD Saturday Delivery - £13.00 - This can be selected if you can only accept delivery on Saturdays. For this service, orders can be placed any time before 3pm on Friday.
6. Livestock Shipping - DX - £24.00 Includes polystyrene box and heat packs if required (Please see Livestock Shipping section below)
Orders placed with standard free shipping service will be shipped using our choice of next day courier. This could be Royal Mail Tracked 24 or DPD Next Day. The courier selected is as the discretion of Finest Aquatics and depends on the order value/weight and postage location.
Please Note: We may split your delivery into more than one parcel if size or weight limits will not allow us to ship the order in one parcel. If this is the case, you will receive separate order dispatch emails for each parcel, each with its own tracking number.
Dispatch Times
Orders placed online or by telephone before 3pm Monday to Friday will be shipped on the same day, using the selected delivery option. We do not dispatch orders on weekends or bank holidays, and these orders will be shipped on the next working day. You will receive an order dispatch confirmation email with tracking details once your order has been shipped.
Tracking Details
All orders will receive a dispatch confirmation email when the order has been shipped. This tracking number can be used to track the parcel on the appropriate courier website. Standard Royal Mail tracked barcodes (13 digits long, ending with 'GB') can be tracked using the Royal Mail track and trace website:
If your order has been shipped with DPD, you can use your 9-digit tracking number to track your parcel on the DPD website:
If you need any assistance with tracking your order, please contact us and we will be more than happy to assist.
Livestock Shipping
Please Note: If delivery is required: 'Livestock Shipping - DX' Must be selected at the checkout.
We regret that we are unable to ship livestock overseas and to some areas in Scotland.
Due to the nature of livestock, we generally need a few days to prepare the livestock and arrange the delivery. We will contact you to arrange which day will be best for you to accept delivery. We will never send the order without confirming with you first.
We dispatch livestock weekly with DX's Livestock Service (DOA Insured) which is a next day service and is generally delivered between 9am – 1pm. Our dispatch days are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Please Note: In the rare case of DOA (dead on arrival) or livestock arriving in an unhealthy condition, we need to be made aware as soon as possible, and within 1 hour of delivery, with images of the condition of the animal. Failure to notify us in time will void the DOA insurance policy with DX.
Please Note: All livestock orders must be despatched within 2 weeks from date of purchase.
Although every effort is made to keep our stock levels up to date, we also sell the livestock instore so some update delays may occur. For up-to-date stock, please call us on: 0151 558 1110.
International Delivery Options
We welcome international customers, however a delivery charge will be applied to customers based outside of the UK, to cover the added costs of shipping the item overseas. This charge will be automatically calculated based on the weight and size of items placed in your shopping basket and displayed at the checkout stage before the order is confirmed.
All international orders are shipped with a tracked service, and the tracking number will be emailed to you once we have successfully dispatched your order. We do not ship items using standard airmail services, we we find this service to be unreliable, and delivery times unpredictable.
Larger Item Delivery
If you have ordered a large aquarium or filter system from us, we will attempt to contact you by telephone or email to arrange the delivery of your new aquarium. Large aquariums are shipped on a pallet service through Palletways or Dropshipped from our supplier. Please be aware that this is a kerbside delivery service. Please Note: The delivery driver is unable to assist with the unloading of your aquarium from the pallet, and the responsibility for this lies solely with the consignee.
For larger glass aquariums, it may be necessary to have additional assistance to help with the unloading process. If you have any questions about the delivery of large aquariums, please do not hesitate to contact us here.
Please note: Delivery times and availability are subject to the suppliers of the aquarium. Additional charges may be incurred when aquariums are being dropshipped directly from supplier, depending on the size of the aquarium and the delivery location. We may contact you after your order has been placed to discuss these if necessary.