# The UKAPS massive, invade Holland! Vivarium 2011



## Mark Evans (28 Mar 2011)

I guess like me, you've wondered how cool it would be to be jollying off around Europe doing shows?... 

I can tell you, it's HARD! Firstly my hat now goes off to the guys, Dan, George & co. It's just relentless, tiresome and just generally hard work, mentally and physically. More on that later. 

The trip started with a few of us arriving at Dans hows late Thursday evening, where we stayed the night getting ready for the weekend. 

Myself, John Starkey, Sam (Themuleous ) and stevey boy (steve UK) had nothing but admiration for Dan's new set up which is rather swish. 

Sam took it to the next level, by staring at it for some considerable time   

Deep in thought...






After a ridiculous 3 hours kip, we then set off to pick the London gang up. 

I'll add pics later on, and also, some other guys will be adding pics to. 

I'll be making a short but sweet vid, with a special little segment for all the shrimp lovers   (interview with thee top guy)

Rory, feel free to post your images over here to.


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## Bobtastic (28 Mar 2011)

Looking forward to seeing all the pictures and reading all the tales!


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## mlgt (28 Mar 2011)

Aye looking forward to the pics and videos


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## Mark Evans (28 Mar 2011)

There should be plenty of images posted. 

Ferry trips are always fun. They remind me of my band days, travelling in and out of Europe on a regular basis, but to do it for Aquascaping is great. 

Here's Paulo (londondragon) taking in some of Dans humour. 





and here's the great DC himself.


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## Graeme Edwards (28 Mar 2011)

Hey,

I'm sorry to have not been there this year. 

Doing these shows are truly punishing. Lack of sleep, hangovers, traveling. It's a killer, but great fun. Respect to Dan for organising this him self. I'm so caught up in studying I can't help my best mate out. So Dan deserves all the credit for the ukaps endeavours.

Good work on flying the ukaps flag. 

Sorry I couldn't take part.

Look forward to seeing the show pics.


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## Mark Evans (28 Mar 2011)

I've never really seen a Vivarium in real life, but there were plenty on show. This one in particular. 

For me, extremely inspiring, and realistic in appearance


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## mlgt (28 Mar 2011)

If thats only one pic. I look forward to the rest. Come on and upload em 

Stop teasing us....


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## Dan Crawford (28 Mar 2011)

Thanks guys!

Well, what can I say, the UKAPS members who attended did us proud, relentless workers and a great team!

I've had three and a hlaf hours sleep and i've been at work since 8, I've managed to pop in a cheeky 30 minute snooze but I have work experience kids in which means I can't do the usual - pop the TV on, hit the sofa and have a proper sleep, FURIOUS   

Well done to everyone and thanks for making the effort. I'll write some more once i've got my awake head on.


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## a1Matt (28 Mar 2011)

Mark Evans said:
			
		

> I guess like me, you've wondered how cool it would be to be jollying off around Europe doing shows?...
> 
> I can tell you, it's HARD! Firstly my hat now goes off to the guys, Dan, George & co. It's just relentless, tiresome and just generally hard work, mentally and physically. More on that later.



and then some!
But well worth it 



			
				Dan Crawford said:
			
		

> Well, what can I say, the UKAPS members who attended did us proud, relentless workers and a great team!



Thanks Dan.  Hats off to you too.  No doubt it was a huge whack of work preparing stuff before you even got up in the middle of the night on the Fri morning to start the road trip.



			
				Dan Crawford said:
			
		

> I'll write some more once i've got my awake head on.



I know that feeling, I'm also half asleep still.  




			
				mlgt said:
			
		

> If thats only one pic. I look forward to the rest. Come on and upload em
> 
> Stop teasing us....



Seeing as I have no pics to contribute, and the day off work, I feel I should carry on in the vein of Marks first post by saying how the Southern side of the trip got started 


Around lunchtime on the Thursday Gerard (frothhelmet) and Rik (mlgt) came over to mine and whiled the afternoon away scaping up one of my pico tanks in preparation for the show.  The guys came up with a simple but cracking little layout for UKAPS, nice one fellas   

This overlapped a bit with Ed (Piece-of-fish) and Lisa (Lisa_Perry75) who turned up in the evening and stayed over for the night.

Ed also brought a tank along, which I was chomping at the bit to see, but it was all under wraps until the show.  Quite literally.  Covered in cling film and you could not see in it at all.  I was already impressed though because it was not just a tank but the whole package (fantastic DIY cabinet, all top notch glassware, etc).

We all got a bit carried away chatting into the night (no surprise there) and also ended up with just a few hours sleep.
We still managed to make it up bright and early ready for Dan and the others to pick us up @6:30am on the Friday.

Paulo (London Dragon) got to mine early on the Friday.

Dan was also ahead of schedule, and even more surprisingly we were ready for him 

We loaded up, all 9 of us squeezed into our 8 seater mini bus (lucky it was only a short drive down the road     ) and off we went.

UKAPS road trip baby


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## LondonDragon (28 Mar 2011)

All I can say is UKAPS BABYYY!!!! this was an amazing experience and really shows that doing this kind of event is not easy work, although the team worked well and we got the stand up and running in no time, taking it down was also military precision. I can also now appreciate all the work and effort that goes into these events.

Was not sure what to expect from the event as this was my first, but this really blew my mind away, was great just to be on the UKAPS stand and chatting to people, explaining how all the equipment in a planted tank works, chatting about the scapes on show, etc... on the second day also managed to catch a couple of talks by Chris Lukhap and Claus Christensen, essential if you like planted tanks and shrimp, really amazing how these guys also interacted with us, great atmosphere and was great to chat to these guys in person and not just read about them on-line.

Got home this morning at 6:30am and was just knackered, haven't had a chance to look at the photos I took with my little compact, I will have a look later and upload any decent shots.

Looking forward to Vivarium 2012!!!


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## MarcoB (28 Mar 2011)

Well, it was great to see you guys again! Although it was way to short and way to busy to really talk for a longer period of time and share info. 

Hopefully we will see you again next year! I'll try to visit the UK in fall and surely will offer more UK rare plants on the forum when available. I was happy to share some with you this fair. There's lots more!

I've no pics yet but if I have them I'll post them here also!

Dan, thanks for bringing the Ukaps posse to the fair. It was great fun to have you all. Next year an even bigger invasion???


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## Steve Smith (28 Mar 2011)

I must be one of the lucky ones - I got in at 3:30am and woke up at 11am 

I had a fantastic weekend and I'm completely knackered!  Very hard work over the weekend, running around with crates of sand, buckets of water, moving hardscape about, carrying things too and from the minibus etc etc.  It was a logistical nightmare but it all worked out well.

I'd like to thank everyone for all their efforts, but especially Dan for all the organisation, and coping with us all asking him a thousand questions during the setup and breakdown process!

The demonstrations attracted a good number of people who all seemed really interested, and with the legend Mr Starkey on the microphone talking people through things as Dan and Mark prepped and planted the demo tanks it proved to be awesome 

I think the star of the stand was Ed's nano.  It drew in so many people who had a lot of questions about it.  All of the other nanos were awesome too (except my hastily thrown together tank which I bought on the Friday night from the stand next door!), and the line-up would catch the eye of passing people and pull them in for a closer look.

I spoke to several people who were either registered on the forum (but lurkers) or were promising to come over and take a look, and hopefully share in this amazing hobby with other like minded people.

I got into quite a deep conversation over Ed's nano about the aesthetics and artistry of it all with a chap who looked to be in his 60's.  He went away appreciating why we use glassware and all of the "jewellery" as I called it 

I got to look around the show several times, but I really didn't take too much in!  There was a lot to see.  I would have liked to get to one or two of the lectures but at those particular times the UKAPS stand was busy, with the demos etc.  I will almost certainly go to Denmark in October!

Also, the two nights spent either in the bar at the hotel or out in the town getting food were great fun.  Socialising with UKAPS friends, and the likes of Lars Green (Tropica MD) and Chris Lukhaup was amazing.  Interesting conversation about the hobby, plants, shrimps and wider subjects was fantastic.

I came away from the show re-inspired, re-invigorated and ready to put together another scape.  I also came home significantly poorer and with two new nano tanks!

Thanks again to everyone, it was truly one to remember


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## MarcoB (28 Mar 2011)

lots of photo's!

http://series.peterdehoog.nl/vivarium2011/


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## Steve Smith (28 Mar 2011)

Some great photos!

I've picked out the UKAPS specific ones - 

http://series.peterdehoog.nl/vivarium20 ... 7_0416.JPG
http://series.peterdehoog.nl/vivarium20 ... 7_0418.JPG
http://series.peterdehoog.nl/vivarium20 ... 7_0427.JPG
http://series.peterdehoog.nl/vivarium20 ... 7_0428.JPG
http://series.peterdehoog.nl/vivarium20 ... 7_0430.JPG
http://series.peterdehoog.nl/vivarium20 ... 7_0432.JPG
http://series.peterdehoog.nl/vivarium20 ... 7_0433.JPG


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## Piece-of-fish (28 Mar 2011)

Thank for all for taking me into the team. It was amazing weekend. I have been to the event like that for the first time.
Great thanks to Dan for organizing everything. I can only imagine how much work he has put into this.
It was nice to meet new members and make more friends.
Hope we can breed some nice shrimp obtained from Chris Lukhaup and offer to ukaps members later.
Looking forward for more photos.


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## LondonDragon (28 Mar 2011)

Piece-of-fish said:
			
		

> Hope we can breed some nice shrimp obtained from Chris Lukhaup and offer to ukaps members later..


So true, I got from Chris the Sulawesi Blues (have a couple of shrimplets already), Neocaridina heteropoda (var. Yellow) (they bred while in the bag during the trip, now have around 15-20 shrimplets), and also got some Sakuras. Let me just say Chris Lukhaup is one great guy, so cool and laid back and just happy to share his experiences with all of us as if we are part of his team already, we managed to obtain some photos from his trips to Hong Kong, Brazil, Papua New Guinea, etc... that he is happy for us to post at a later date, still need to confirm with him what we can post.

Got some really nice looking Blue Tiger shrimp with Orange eyes from a German seller (Fisch & Heim), he had some of the best looking shrimps I have ever seen.

I will try and post some photos later on


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## Themuleous (28 Mar 2011)

Ditto what everyone has said  was a quality weekend and one I'm definitely going to repeat.  I know a few others are already planning next year's trip!  I'm already thinking, my estate, plenty of boot room and a shed load of money! Just sooo much awesome stuff.  Proper quality event.

The frogs were amazing as well, will ahve to work on being allowed to how one of those as well 

Don't feel to bad today, but will have to see how long I last this eve!

Nice one to Dan for organising.   

Sam


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## a1Matt (28 Mar 2011)

Piece-of-fish said:
			
		

> Hope we can breed some nice shrimp obtained from Chris Lukhaup and offer to ukaps members later..



Me too   

It is going to be long hard work though as mine are wild shrimp so will require a number of generations breeding before they are hardy enough for the average planted tank (50 µ siemens conductivity anyone?    )

Wish me luck!



			
				LondonDragon said:
			
		

> Let me just say Chris Lukhaup is one great guy, so cool and laid back and just happy to share his experiences with all of us as if we are part of his team already



 :text-+1: 

Same for Stefan Hummel too


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## Gh0st (28 Mar 2011)

It was fun to see ukaps again, to bad graeme and stu weren't there. just got home after 5 days vivarium, and still need to go back tomorow to get all my stuff home.
so for now: tnx for the beer  and i will see if i get edited out of the "movie" 
see you guys and girls! next year
Mark from vivarium.


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## John Starkey (28 Mar 2011)

Hi guys,thanks for a great weekend in great company,i loved the show it was very enjoyable but very tiring especially at my age   ,i roomed with me old mucker Sam (aka themuleous),which is good really as i snore for england,and sleeps through anything   ,thanks to me little mate Crawford for getting this on this year,love ya dude   ,and thanks for all the other guys for making this a great trip,also thanks to all our Dutch friends for being so helpful and very kind,i will get some pics up over the next few days,i am off to bed now i am knackered ,

john.


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## Lisa_Perry75 (29 Mar 2011)

Hi guys,

Vivarium 2011 was my first proper trip abroad and I must say it was awesome. Had a brilliant time and a great laugh. The hotel was 4* and very luxurious. Thanks to UKAPS for providing free transport  Another big thank you to Dan for organising and to John for sharing the driving.

Come on guys get your pics up on here  I will definitely be checking the back account to see if I can afford the Denmark trip!!!


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## a1Matt (29 Mar 2011)

Lisa_Perry75 said:
			
		

> Come on guys get your pics up on here



Yeah!

I know it is a bit selfish, but I am dying to see how the UKAPS pico tank came out on camera.
Although the tank and hardscape materials are mine the scape was a huge team effort...

Hardscape layout - Gerard and Rik.
Plant choice and layout - Me  
Planting - Paulo, Sam, Steve and I.
Tools - Ed (could not do it with my tweezers, your super fine ones came in real handy).
Plant suppliers - Marco and another Dutch hobbyist whose name I do not know (if you see this tell me who you are)

So a big thank you to everyone for helping me out  

With special mentions to Marco for letting me have some of his sale stock of HC, and to Paulo for getting the HC planted so professionally


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## Steve Smith (29 Mar 2011)

I didn't really manage to take many photos, but I got a few from the journey down in the mini bus and the evening socials.  I think these three are my favourites:

Around the table, deep in conversation about aquascaping and other subjects:


Lars Green (MD of Tropica) sharing his thoughts, lots of cameras about!


Walking back from an italian bistro through a deserted shopping arcade:





A few more here


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## a1Matt (29 Mar 2011)

Those were my faves too (I also liked the one of me chatting to Janekka).
I love Lars' cheeky grin, and you've captured it perfectly


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## nayr88 (29 Mar 2011)

I'm gonna snap!!! Haha the suspense is to much, 

Enough of the pictures of people and arty shots of the mall. I wanna see tanks dammit


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## a1Matt (29 Mar 2011)

It was a really nice mall though


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## nayr88 (29 Mar 2011)

Haha, it does look nice,

Naw I'm kidding all the arty shorts and stories are making for an interesting read. Where can I see your nano matt?


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## wolfsberg (29 Mar 2011)

Bleedin' bajillions more photos here!... http://s715.photobucket.com/albums/ww153/roryphelan/Vivarium 2011/

PHEW!


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## wolfsberg (29 Mar 2011)

Matt's baby...


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## a1Matt (29 Mar 2011)

wolfsberg said:
			
		

>



Thanks Rory 

I can not post pics of it as my camera died a few weeks ago.



			
				Lisa_Perry75 said:
			
		

> The hotel was 4* and very luxurious.



Especially the showers


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## Mark Evans (29 Mar 2011)

a1Matt said:
			
		

> Especially the showers



 

Here's a real beauty...


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## Mark Evans (29 Mar 2011)

A pic of matt's nano...


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## LondonDragon (29 Mar 2011)

Here some of mine, thought I took more than I actually did, oh well, I know a lot of the guys took a lot more so hopefully they will share, Mark and John in particular 

The UKAPS bus




Getting things ready





John entertaining the crowd





The guys doing a great job with the 1st demo




The finished 1st Demo tank












Me and the tank lol




Edwards Tank













John cathing his shrimp




The finished 2nd demo tank




The UKAPS Stand


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## Mark Evans (29 Mar 2011)

Nice Paulo.

I've lost most of my images   

Here's mr Starkey taking a pic...


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## Steve Smith (29 Mar 2011)

Mark Evans said:
			
		

> I've lost most of my images



Nightmare!


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## John Starkey (29 Mar 2011)

Mark Evans said:
			
		

> Nice Paulo.
> 
> I've lost most of my images
> 
> Here's mr Starkey taking a pic...



Aw jeez mark that sucks mate,hopefully I'll get some up pretty soon,

John


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## Piece-of-fish (30 Mar 2011)

What happened to the photos Mark?
Those Terrariums were truly inspiring.

Here is a short vid of my nano.



Will post some pics tomorrow mb.


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## Gill (30 Mar 2011)

Totally Amazing, sadly can only see a few pix as most of the hosting sites are blocked here.


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## Lisa_Perry75 (30 Mar 2011)

That sucks Mark - what happened?

Love the pics so far and the vid Ed


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## Themuleous (30 Mar 2011)

> John entertaining the crowd



John chatting up the ladies again, more like! 

Sam


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## John Starkey (30 Mar 2011)

Hi All,here,s a few of mine,i will add more when time permits,straight off camera except for a small amount of pp,i don,t have Marks expertise in photoshop yet   
Lisa




Steve smith Aka Steve uk



Stefan



Chris Lukhaup



Ed,s nano caused quite a bit of interest 



























Sam









Matts Pico



Dans Nano



Marks Nano,put together on the day,



Steve,s nano put together on the day,



Luis nano entrant tank










i will add more later this week,
john.


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## Gh0st (30 Mar 2011)

Nice photo's John, i remember you taking the last photo of the nano, like a real director telling the people to put their nose against the glass  Very nice Nano aswell

@Mark, how is the "movie" working out so far? or did you lost that aswell?


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## CyrielB (30 Mar 2011)

Beautiful pictures guys, I enjoyed your presence and thanks for the bolbitus sp.!!!


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## a1Matt (30 Mar 2011)

Welcome to UKAPS mate.  Your Windelov is looking nice in my tank


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## CyrielB (30 Mar 2011)

Oke nice I hope to see you next year   The Bolbitus sp. will eventually go in a new tank with hopefully a great scape.


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## Ekennaj (30 Mar 2011)

Hello peeps,

Great to read you all had a good trip, and a great weekend at vivarium.
I wasn't sure I had a Ukaps account, cuz I am always lurking on all kinds of forums. Ekennaj = Janneke written backwards, from dutch aquascaping.  Hello neighbors!
And i'm bringing some pictures of the UKAPS scapes with me. Rest off the pic's are on our site

















my favorite scape was:


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## Steve Smith (30 Mar 2011)

Great photos everyone   Thanks for sharing, and welcome to our neighbours!


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## Infinite (31 Mar 2011)

Hello!


I was linked to this page by another forum from the Netherlands

This guy gave me a small snail!




And I'm so happy with it haha! Thanks again! it's so cute and spiky haha

It's new "living space" includes a lot of plants, also from vivarium. Probably bought from some of you   




Thanks for being at Viv!


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## a1Matt (31 Mar 2011)

That's Chris Lukhaup, and I bet you 5€ the snail is a Clithon Corona


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## Infinite (31 Mar 2011)

I won't participant in the bet, because you are right


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## John Starkey (2 Apr 2011)

More Pic,s for you ,
This is a macro shot of the flower in the viv mark put up

Thats all from me folks till next year,
john.


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## Steve Smith (2 Apr 2011)

Cracking shots mate!

Where the hell was that bloody owl?!  I didn't see the damned thing anywhere!


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## John Starkey (2 Apr 2011)

SteveUK said:
			
		

> Cracking shots mate!
> 
> Where the hell was that bloody owl?!  I didn't see the damned thing anywhere!



Thanks Steve,the owl was on the stand just before Chris lukhaup,s stand,you know me mate i can spot a bird anywhere,

john.


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## George Farmer (3 Apr 2011)

Wow!   

Looks like you guys had a super time - well done to all of you for making the effort and doing UKAPS proud.  

I know how much hard work goes into these things, so you have the the upmost respect from me.  And thanks for posting the great pics too!


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## wolfsberg (3 Apr 2011)

Excellent pics John!  I didn't see the iguanas or water dragons!... Where were they?


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## John Starkey (4 Apr 2011)

wolfsberg said:
			
		

> Excellent pics John!  I didn't see the iguanas or water dragons!... Where were they?



Hi Ya Rory,you must have had beer in your eyes mate,they were every where    ,

john.


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## Piece-of-fish (6 Apr 2011)

Here are some more. Lots been posted so not much from me   

Submersed grown plants!


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## Steve Smith (7 Apr 2011)

Excellent photos Ed   Starting to get the hang of that 7D?


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## Piece-of-fish (7 Apr 2011)

SteveUK said:
			
		

> Excellent photos Ed   Starting to get the hang of that 7D?



Thanks and yes, little by little 
Me want L series lenses now  8)


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## a1Matt (8 Apr 2011)

I agree, excellent photos.
You are very good at capturing moments on camera.

I was surprised to see that most stands selling plants had them exposed to the air, and then misted them regularly. 
I am glad you caught a pic of that.

I am after some more pics of my little nano tank (going to start a journal on here for it).  So if anyone has any to share please pm me to arrange sending them to me.


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## Mark Evans (10 Apr 2011)

A few words from the king of shrimp. Sound is quite poor. I've tried my best to clean it up.

HD available


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## a1Matt (10 Apr 2011)

Good interview, and good work in bringing this to the masses guys   

Could you get any more laid back than Dan and Chris


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## Ian Holdich (10 Apr 2011)

great vid! 

Dan you remind me of Simon Amstell in his Popworld days!


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## Antoni (11 Apr 2011)

Great endeavour to get this nice interview for us, Mark! Congats!  

I like your style, Dan!


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## MarcoB (22 Apr 2011)

Talking about massive:

Here's the background we made during the 2 day fair. Now installed in the 3 meters tank.
It looks a bit silly now, a fresh background with no water in the tank. Anyway within a few weeks this background will look stunning hopefully.


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## Westyggx (3 Aug 2011)

Guys when is the next Vivarium 2012?


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## Marco Aukes (11 Aug 2011)

March 24th and 25th 2012


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