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November 22 & 23

It is with great joy and pride that we announce the return of Vivarium:

I have seen our good old Dutch Style in many different kind of tanks, and I am sure it can work. It will make the impact of the famous "streets" even bigger. But it's a pitty this has come to an end, definitely one of my favourites here.

A great journal that has resulted in a stunning scape. The bad part is that we never get to see the final FTS untill judging is done, bit I bet it is worth the wait. Good luck on the contest, the judges should have no other option than to score it well.

Sorry for the late reply, but better late than never.... Myself I love every style, as long as it is done well. I mean, I can love to watch at a biotope tank just as much. The Co2 distribution is mostly linked to the filter flow back into the aquarium. Filtration differs from tank to tank...

Ok, but since I am the "read and learn" type of guy (and I have learned a lot from your posts here); any clues on the above what it might be that the topic starter is doing wrong here?

*raises hand* My 12 year old 310*80*65 tank is a wooden one. Build it myself after having tested it on a smaller size first. When I started the project I thought there would be many advantages, mainly cost wise and in weight. However, once finished, I can only say both were fairytales ;-)...

Hey, one has to be if you want to learn from the ones who know how to do it ;-)

Looks great George! I see your "final" layout got some adjustments compared to the 11 up to 14 tries. In my opinion for the better, particulary since you are now using the best looking sides of the rocks in the most harmonious layout. The rock in the backright looks the best in this way, the...

Sad to read this topic. Apparently another great competition runs down into the trap of cheating and unfriendly competition. In this case, resulting in one of the best European scapers to not enter anymore. @Mark, in any case you are a champ and the scape remains stunning. Can't wait to follow...

Re: 120 x 55 x 55 getting close to the end. Feedback on ste Wow, it has been a while since I took (or had) the time to scroll through the recent journals. I bow to this scape Mark, stunning work. Regarding fish, definitely not a combination of Gouramies and kardinals; have you ever tried...

Thanks for sharing guys! I had great plans to go there myself, but this time I had to choose for the family which had planned the anual trip in the same week.

March 24th and 25th 2012 :shh:

stunning piece of wood!

Welcome Laza, I have seen your stunning pico's/nano's before; but your bigger tanks and saltwater are stunning a well! Truly an inspirator!

This is one event I will definitely not miss out on. I will travel to Denmark to see all the great speakers we normally also host on our event, but I than never get a chance to see the lectures myself. And Amano so close............no way I am missing that!

I think both works are typically Oliver; first one brillant, second one "Hallelujah i did not know a scape could look that ugly". When you look at his total "artbook" he once in a while has these weird experiments in between and most of the time I hate those. But when he is back in his...

that is a real shame, unfortunately there is no judging report on the contest, so you are not sure if it influences the judging. By the way, I was unable to attend the show this year.

Well, it might not have been ranked in the top ten, it still is a great piece of work you guys pulled with just emersed plants mainly. Well done Dan, I see you even trusted George with some additional tasks besides just fetching you beers :lol: But why did you guys fill up the tank all the...

That is a real fun competition; I was a judge there in the first edition (so far for the judges being respectable ;-) ). With your scaping skills; you guys should at least hit the top ten. In the mean time George can get you coffee :lol:

yes, same as last year.

Re: "Prairie Lands"... crypts removed Hmm, they do not grab a quick gasp now and than? Anyways, once they go nuts and wish to start breeding, they will fill your surface with enough garbage again :lol: :lol:

Re: "Prairie Lands"... crypts removed Just like most fish they can scrape of algue and an occosional plant leaf here and there. I think because of them returning to the surface for a gasp of air to fill their labyrinths, they disturb it more and therefore stop the slim from forming.

:thumbup: But do not sneak out that easily; you should definitely try to go the full Dutch Style once!

:lol: Well luckily that is not the criterium. However, lack of views to the backwall, missing streets of plants, and to much central focus "disqualify" it from being typical Dutch Style. But than again, who cares which style it is when the result looks like this.

I have given some general guidelines here: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8713 The techniques of caring foryour plantsdoes not differ much from any other styles. no matter what style you choose, your plants will always need TLC

:silent: *bites tongue, bites tongue, bites tongue* :silent: Nope, that did not help.........sorry, it is a lovely scape, but it ain't Dutch!

Looks good Maurits! And what kind of species is Turbo wishing to become when he grows up?

The sad fate of competitions............you can never chose a winner that is not open for debate :wink: I personalle would have choosen different winners in each category. But as I judged several contests before myself, I know that probably goes when you look at each individual scores from...

Thanks to the offline version I could have a good time with the wonderful tanks in this competition. It was a pleasant surprise to see so much better quality overall in this competition, esspecially with more contestants. Previous years had in my opinion always 3-4 top quality scapes per...

It is a shame this great competition is always published on a website that is so slow....... I wil have to wait for a few weeks untill less visitors come to the site to be able to view it all without getting to frustrated.

At rechecking you pics, the bubble flow of your CO2 looks like a jacuzi.......I think you had put the CO2 up to high.

Is that tank size in cm? If so, than most of the species would not even be suitable when kept as a single species.

Just let them float for a few days on the water surface; it will soon enough make new roots.

To many ideas.... In a tank like such a large schoal of T.espei would look incredible in my opinion.

Wow, amazing first post! :clap:

Wow, there you go; all it needed was planting. Looks good; job well done! :thumbup:

I must say I had some doubts about this setup, even after I had seen the expertise in other scapes of yours. At first setup the arrangement of stones seemed to me to be a bit "crowded". But now with all the plants settling in, it is starting to look really good (and I must say; once again).

Christel will release an update on this one coming January, containing over 150 new or updated species.

Real nice setup; well done! :thumbup:

In my opinion much better than the previous ones; it looks less artificial. Adding the smaller sized rocks will certainly give it a more natural look. But after that, it is time to start planting and start enjoying.

Fully agreed!

:lol: :lol: :lol: Best entry I have seen so far. :thumbup:

It also depends on the origin of your discus...... If they are wildcaught, you must be way more carefull with them compared to bred in Europe/UK

Me to, and I have the pleasure to visit this tank several times a year. Ah, another thing I forgot to mention. Like everything, this developped over time. Whilst a lot of home brewing was done in the earlier days, now we see more branded products. The biggest branded fertiliser in The...

Totally agree Tom. The total level of typical Dutch Style Aquariums in the National Championship is gradually declining. With the older people been taken from the hobby, and the high adoration for Nature Style amongst the young people; the spiral is going downwards. This is also due to the fact...

And finally in this mass picture posts; last October, Raymond Duindam was granted to be crowned as the new National Champion. He even won the Grnad Champion title, meaning he received he highest score amongst all categories. As we can see, his Dutch Style has a bit of a more modern touch to it:

Like they say; like father like son....... Imagine; first drewl on Willem's tank in the living room, just te be invited upstairs to find this in his son's Fred van Wezel's room:

Now we get to the crème de la crème; Willem van Wezel. 2008 National Champion and runner up in 2005 and 2006. The first batch of pictures is how his tank looked early 2009; last on is from how it looked a few weeks ago:

Next up; John Frenken (now since a year a NBAT judge) with how he entered the contest from the Vivarium event:

Ok, first some more pics from the Bart Laurens tank (also to prove that there are actually fish in there ;-))

Thanks Tom! It was a pleasure doing so. Well, I arranged yearly aquarium trips the last few years with Christel Kasselmann and Oliver Lucanus to visit some of the best tanks in The Netherlands and Belgium in a day. It is always a pleasure doing it, and the people love to show off their...

Nice setup there George!

:lol: Not quite.

SO, that was basicaly all theory for the Dutch Style. And now for the pop-quiz. Who dares to take a shot at why the above posted picture from the tank of Bart Laurens was not the best in the contest?

Details I forgot to mention First of all; using rocks and wood as decoration. The usage of these are higly restricted. The reasons for that are the same as for plants; the same thing should not appear more than once in scape. So yes, using a piece of wood or rock, covered with moss or ferns, is...

Inside the Dutch Style Now that we know what the technical requirements are, it is time to start planting. Like everybody knows, the Dutch style is also called aquatic gardening. And for a good reason. One of the aspects of the Dutch style is a high variety in plants, in particular in color...

On the mainland we use real measurements ;-) This tank is 310*65*50 in cm. Well, not for me; only in my dreams I have the time to maintain such a tank. This tank is from Bart Laurens, somebody I know very well and whos tank I have seen a few times live in action. But this man did not make it...

Before continuing on the theory, a short preview:

Well, I agree with you it is an important part of it. But it is a shared importance with the scaping. But than again, I count all plant related items as part of the scape. So the total split is 38 % relating to fishkeeping, 42% relating to scape and 20% to general topics. And in my opinion...

Very well done to create such a sense of "greatness" in such a small tank.

Wow, stunning nature! I would have to drive a while to find such mountains..... Any luck with collecting rocks?

Well George, I do not fully agree on that the NBAT contest is more of a fishkeeping skill contest. At least, not for the planted tank category. It is a part of it, but so are plants and composition. The NBAT contest consists of 5 main categories: A1, which is planted tanks where all the...

Ah, that looks more like it. However, please note the Aponogeton is not at the strong focus point on the left. In adition, the Vallisneria is at the same line and will also grow to to surface.

The Hardware Whilst the typical dutch tank still has an old fashioned overall look to it, it has developped away from being heated by petroleum heaters. But than again, not far from it. I personally like to tease some of the Dutch Style die-hards that a typical tank should always contain at...

You can say that again Graeme. And because of the fact that each round takes place in a different month of the year the contestants should take care that their tanks are in optimum form throughout the whole year. In general this schedule looks as follows: Level/...

As requested by Graeme in the topic about Maurits tank, hereby a short story about Dutch style aquariums. Be warned in advance, this is my view on it; not necessarily the 100% correct story. I will start off with some theory and will continue later on with some pictures. Historic Background &...

Uhmm....that is not an amazon as far as I can see. This plant only grows (in the long run) emerged. And it is algea on there.

Is the flow still acceptable? And are there fish in the tank? If there is no fish in, just put the hose directly in the tank. If there are fish, than maybe you have a plastic pant pot laying around? With some effort you can use this to keep the fish out of the hose, bu tstill the water in.

With that kind of setup you would for sure not break the filters. There might be a slight loss of the combined flow. But why so difficult and not just put both spraybars just straight next to each other in the tank? Would have the same optical effect

All I know is that I had one customer with the same problem, or actually two different ones who bought one bag together. They had this exact same problem in both their tanks. It still puzzles me as of today, since I have sold many bags before without this problem. I even have the stuff in my...

having a brain and being nuts for the hobby does not co-exist; you of all should now that ;-) @Graeme; by using rocks in his scape, Maurits already strayed already from the path of the original (and illustrious) Dutch Aquascape. If there is a demand, I can prepare a post on typical Dutch...

You can run to the UK my friend, but there is no hiding ;-) Nice new tank! However, you forgot the golden rule of Dutch aquascaping; you should always have green-red-green-red-green :lol:

Dear all, First of all, my compliments on this great forum and high level of scaping skills amongst all of you :thumbup: Because of a shared contact between myself and the strong holders of this forum, I learned about this forum and am since today going through some of the posts with open...