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[CONTEST] UKAPS @ Aquatics Live, Olympia

What a weekend. Many thanks to organisers. Placing fourth and receiving a 'highly commented' award is great.
It is a pity time went so fast and I did not have a chance to talk to all.
Hope it becomes an annual event.
Huge thanks for free stuff to unipac and plants to tropica. It is going to be a busy scaping week.
can't believe I had to bring 2 full pallets of stuff home :shifty:
Both scapes are home and up and running already :lol: I had a chance to shoot a short vid of the stand so will post it after editing. Will take some time though. No pics from me.
Gladly I can sleep as long as I want to tomorrow so using the energy taken from there while it's flowing.
Mrs. Piece-of-fish will get to learn some tank maintenance and scaping this week. Can't maintain so many of them alone.
See you next year aquatics-live :thumbup:
 
Great seeing you Ed, and many, many thanks for bringing your tanks to the show. The scape, quality of growth, and water clarity were all top notch. Truly jaw dropping (and very ADA like).

Looks like you took home enough materials to start a whole new tank (or two 😉 ) I'm looking forward to your next creation.

Once again many thanks for the micro fern. See you next year 🙂
 
Ill say it again like so many others... what a weekend! The ukaps stand looked amazing with so many people coming over to check out what it was all about with Paulo and everyone else there doing a sterling job of telling them and selling all the ukaps toolkits that Dan brought! We were over on the competition tank stand most of the time mostly meeting up with ukaps members who had come down to the show.

The saturday from 11:30 was spent setting up the tanks. Even though we had until 6:00pm to finish them, everyone was working at double speed and had them complete by the afternoon! We all mentioned how different all the setups looked once they were complete so it goes to show the range of different ideas and creativeness there on the day 🙂

I got lucky and pipped tom to the post with my tank, got a quick picture then stripped it down in about 5 minutes as I had to catch a train! Thanks to Andyh and co and Dan for getting it in his boot as there was no way it would have survived the train back up to Chester! I was really pleased and surprised to win as there were so many great scapes set up on the Saturday then carefully maintained to get clear water for the judging on Sunday! (mine escaped having a rubber ducky or a spongebob ornament put in it!)

It was great to meet everyone and make more new friends on ukaps plus I got to see one of Chri Lukhaups talks which was excellent plus Georges talk and James star marshalls excellent talk on composition that I caught on the first day.

Great thanks for the ukaps staff for organising it and the guys who put in so much work on Friday to set it up plus the sponsors unipac, tropica and I assume dennerle for the tanks? Also thanks to Paulo and his girlfriend for putting me up on the Saturday night, the perfect hosts for a sleepy northerner!

Ive got some pics of the tanks which Ill put up later when Ive downloaded them off my card.
 
Congratulations on your win Stu, it was a really good scape!...along with all the others too - it was great to see all of the different ideas coming together and they all looked fantastic all lined up at the end.
Thanks again for answering a few of my questions and it was good to meet you too. :thumbup:
 
What a fantastic weekend, hats off to Tom, Jill and their team for putting together such a successful show. To have achieved what they did at launch is testament to their skill as event organisers.

The Ukaps presence was, as always, legendary. The superb scapes on the stand from Ed and Tony did the society proud, especially when Ed gave a live pruning demo. The live aquascaping contest drew a good crowd and the scapes were all of a very high standard. The variety of different scaping styles show that UKaps is a hive of creativity.

It was great to meet some new faces and catch up with those I know.
A massive well done to George and Dan for their organisation, and to Paulo who worked his socks off Friday to Sunday for the UKaps cause.

I had a great time and l really look forward to next years show 😀 .

Cheers,
James
 
A great weekend indeed. Unfortunately I could only get there for a short while on Friday, and for the Saturday, but it was great to see everyone again for a catch up, and the scaping contest was good fun too - not to mention very well received by the large crowd of spectators ! I caught James' seminar on composition and thought it was excellent - very informative and very well presented, and I got to chat with Chris Lukaup and Heiko Bleher very briefly too.

Huge thanks to Dan and George for organising the 3 ukaps display stands. The effort that those 2 put into this weekend is immense and has been going on for months too. From making the calls and to get the sponsors on board to driving all over the place collecting hardscape and tanks they really do deserve applause - I'd be surprised if either of them were home before 1am this morning !

Thanks also to Paulo for manning the display stand for what seemed the whole weekend, and also for setting up my nano with Lisa Perry, in my unexpected absence on Friday ( and apologies for using absorbent packing materials 😳 I won't do that again - promise !!! ). Ed for the huge effort in getting 2 mature scapes and cabinets to the show - they really made the stand stand out 🙂 And to Tropica, Hagen, Dennerle and UniPac for the plants, tanks, and hardscape that they supplied. It was great to see so many members of the public enjoying the display tanks, and asking lots of questions of the ukaps members who were around.

I only got pics just after all the competition tanks had been filled, so they're a little cloudy, but you can see what they're each about. Stu did an amazing job with his tank, and was a most deserving winner.

Who can guess whose is whose below !?!

Looking forward to next year, and I promise the dogs will be secured for the next one 😉

Tony

TheTanks.jpg
 
It was an intensive weekend! I am still overloaded with ideas and information, need a couple of days to digest!




___________________________

I don't know what is the secret of success, but the secret of failure is trying to please everyone!
 
Wow what a weekend a BIG thanks to all involved in setting this up and makeing it happen i can only imagine the work that whent into it
I had loads of fun setting up the tank i felt way out of my depth at first on show and talking to the public but soon settled and just had fun meeting all the other scapers haveing banter it was more like a big team than 9 individuals helping and being helped
I have learned a lot from this weekend one thing i learned is that george and dan are just two normal blokes well george is anyway 😀
well done stu and all my new mates Hope to meet you all again soon,
😀
 
Yeah, that is important to stress. These pro's really made us all feel very welcome and part of the team!

Put my name down for next year! 😀


___________________________

I don't know what is the secret of success, but the secret of failure is trying to please the world!
 
I had a great weekend, still knackered now!

Great to meet you all, felt truly welcomed by everyone!

The competition was great fun and i learnt loads from all the people involved.

Here are a few pics, browse my flickr to see more:

The Aquascaping competition:

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Aquascaping Competition at Aquatics live by andyh_2011, on Flickr

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UKAPS Stand by andyh_2011, on Flickr

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UKAPS Stand by andyh_2011, on Flickr

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Ed, Teaching on the UKAPS stand by andyh_2011, on Flickr

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Aquajardin Rams Scape 2 by andyh_2011, on Flickr

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Aquajardin Rams Scape by andyh_2011, on Flickr



To all you of you who didn't make it, you missed a great show! 😀

Andyh
 
I was eagerly awaiting the pictures of the stand, so I am happy to find them now here. Thanks for that.

Furthermore a great applause from my side on the stunnig result of the display tanks and the competition entries. For me personally the entries from Tony's post bottom and middle row, both the utmost left tanks really stand out.

Like one can expect upfront, the UKAPS founders and it's members have raised the bar once more. It also raises even higher expectations for our own show, where I am glad to host them once more.
 
Small video of the show:



Brief appearance of the UKAPS stand and the Aquascaping competition.
 
Hi all,

The show was really good, especially considering it was the first! I too want to echo a few sentiments and thanks to lots of people:-

George and Dan - Outstanding effort, as always, on the ukaps front. Can't really say enough so just - big thanks!

Paulo - Manning the ukaps stand and quite possibly being one of the nicest people I've ever met, thanks so much for being such an amazing host (and you're good lady too) for letting Stu and I stay. Though I'd keep an eye on Chelsea at all times... :lol:

Ed and Tony - For showcasing your tanks, all three were stunning. Tony - no worries I didn't do a lot, just made sure there was no packing material residue left on any rocks or anything. Also thanks to Mrs Piece-of-fish for looking after our stuff at all times! (I am so sorry but I can't remember your name/I think I may have confused your name and Paulos gf name 😳 ).

Aquajardin - I definitely think you guys had one of the best stands of the show. It was great to chat to you and in particular Sam, who accompanied me on the train back to Southampton. I too look forward to using the 20% off voucher and visiting your store!

It was great to meet Jeremy and Nathan from PFK, I ended up having quite a natter with Nathan. What a character, I love his writing style - I may have to take up my subscription again!

Other ukaps folk - was great to catch up with you all and meet some new faces 🙂 Also Luis, don't think of it as being last because you are 10th out of all those that entered the first round 😀

I look forward to the next event!!! ROLL ON VIVARIUM!!! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
Thanks for the feedback and nice words 🙂 I was knackered on Monday, carrying that tank on the tube didn't help either, no idea how Tom managed with one twice the size! :shock: :shock: :shock:

Really enjoyed the experience and help out the guys as much as I could over the 3 days, wasn't there really to buy anything as I didn't need any plants or anything else, was more to promote the hobby as a whole which I think we managed that.

It wasn't a big show in terms of the presence from retailers but hopefully is the start of bigger things to come, chatting to everyone around the place it seemed to have been a great show for everyone.

Was great to see lots of familiar faces in the show and meet a lot of new members, was nice to finally meet Jeremy Gay, had a nice chat with Chris Lukhaup once again, great guy! Agree with Lisa, Natham is a real character (he should stay clear of the curry), was great to meet lots of people that previous only heard off or chatted online with.

All in all a great experience, bring on the Aquatics Live 2012! 🙂
 
A huge thank you to everyone involved.

When I first heard about Aquatics Live about 10 months ago I was keen to get involved from the outset. It provided UKAPS with the opportunity to showcase the planted aquarium and aquascaping hobby to a wide audience, from total newcomers to seasoned veterans.

The UKAPS stand represented an area to display the finished product i.e. mature aquascapes, as well as a place to interact with the visitors who were asking plenty of questions throughout both days.

The Aquascaping Contest area was buzzing. At one point I counted a crowd measuring five deep. They seemed fascinated by the aquascaping processes, right from substrate installation through to water-filling.

The whole event went really well and I think a lot more people now have more of an idea about planted tanks and aquascaping.

A special thanks to Paulo for manning the UKAPS stand tirelessly and selflessly all weekend, and being there for the prep and clear-up too. And on top of that, putting up UKAPS members in his private home. Legend.

It was really great to meet everyone, old faces and new.

Next year is going to be mental and I have a feeling we'll be in a more prominent area.

Unfortunately I didn't get many photos. I'm looking forward to seeing Dan's and Stu's in particular.
 
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