George Farmer
Founder
- Joined
- 21 Jun 2007
- Messages
- 6,741
Recently the UKAPS founders were thrilled to be invited to aquascape some aquariums, to help celebrate Tropica's 40th Birthday at the Interzoo in Germany. So off we flew to Denmark to visit the incredible Tropica nurseries and production facilities!
A special thanks to The Green Machine who recommended UKAPS to Tropica. Tropica were inundated with requests from other international forums and clubs to help set up their display tanks, but they chose UKAPS. Graeme will also post a thread in the TGM sub-forum with more photos.
We were all both honoured and privileged to be invited, and it's no understatement to say it was one of the best experiences of our lives.
Dan and I were representing UKAPS, and Graeme representing The Green Machine. Dan and I did one tank, Graeme the other, although we helped each other out, of course.
We set off from Dan's place at 4am on the Thu 11th Feb, and to cut a long and eventful story short, we landed in Aarhus, Denmark at around 10am local time.
Lars Green, Tropica's Managing Director, was there to meet us and drive us the 40 minutes or so to Tropica HQ.
We began work almost immediately after some brief introductions and some much needed superb fresh filter coffee (we were up at 4am after 3hrs sleep the night before!)
Day one was spent installing the hardscape, siliconing it in place to ensure it did not move during transit.
Later we had a grand tour of the nurseries, following the whole process from growing the plants in tissue culture, to the green houses, to the potting process. I cannot express how impressive the whole thing was - it was truly mind blowing to see so many beautiful aquatic plants in one place, and seeing them develop from tiny specimens into bursting pots in the space of weeks was phenomenal.
In the evening Lars took us out to an amazing restaurant where we ate delightful steak and drank wonderful beer.
Day two was spent going out to the nurseries and selecting our plants, prepping and planting the tanks, including a 40cm tank planted with plants grown purely in the lab.
We went out for another incredible meal in the evening, including a few select beers, of course. At around £9 each though, we limited ourselves!
Anyway, enough of the words; you want photos…
Arrive in Aarhus, Denmark. -8C…
George and Dan position bases ready for hardscape to be siliconed into position for transit
Dan installing substrate
Dan siliconing in Sumatra Wood
Graeme installing hardscape; Old ADA Iron Wood and Petrified Wood
Dan inspects wood placement
Graeme admires his handy work
The UKAPS and TGM display tanks just after filling (full step-by-step to be published on Tropica website)
Dan ties the moss on
Graeme and Troels (David and Goliath!)
Dan and Graeme check out the new Tropica catalogue
Graeme and Dan hardscaping the 100cm Tropica acrylic display tank
Riccia, anyone?
The experimental lab filled with a wide variety of set-ups; from low-light non-CO2 to high-energy tanks
The lab with plants are grown from cells in inert conditions in special growing media. Fascinating stuff.
Dan and Graeme suffered from sore necks after a while…
Potting initial specimens. A few weeks later they will be ready for sale
Youngest plants at the front. Mature plants to the rear.
Amazon swords. Some over 8 foot tall.
Plants as far as the eye can see!
“My name is Graeme and I like aquarium plants!â€
More plants
And more plants
HC brimming over their pots
George Looks pensive whilst trying to decide which plants too choose, there is simply too much to choose from...
So lets have a bit of everything!
Echinodorus sp. flower
Moss on wood
A square meter of the healthiest moss I have ever seen!
Errr, more moss
Just in case you weren’t bored of moss yet…
The best room in the house
Hair anyone?
The working area where we drank litres of filter coffee, ate the most amazing baguettes, talked about plants, and aquascaped a total of four tanks
Just a few pots
Graeme chatting to the legendary Holger Windelov, founder of Tropica in 1970. It was a real honour to meet this great man who shared some amazing stories of his plant discoveries!
The fantastic Tropica main show tank using Elos gear. Absolutely algae-free and lit with 2 x 150w MH, 8 x 24w HO T5. With overflow and sump. Autodosing system. This beauty is 70cm front to rear depth.
George, Dan and Graeme planting the 40cm acrylic display aquascape with 100% laboratory grown plants
A real team effort
This wonderful trip has to come to an end.
A special thanks to The Green Machine who recommended UKAPS to Tropica. Tropica were inundated with requests from other international forums and clubs to help set up their display tanks, but they chose UKAPS. Graeme will also post a thread in the TGM sub-forum with more photos.
We were all both honoured and privileged to be invited, and it's no understatement to say it was one of the best experiences of our lives.
Dan and I were representing UKAPS, and Graeme representing The Green Machine. Dan and I did one tank, Graeme the other, although we helped each other out, of course.
We set off from Dan's place at 4am on the Thu 11th Feb, and to cut a long and eventful story short, we landed in Aarhus, Denmark at around 10am local time.
Lars Green, Tropica's Managing Director, was there to meet us and drive us the 40 minutes or so to Tropica HQ.
We began work almost immediately after some brief introductions and some much needed superb fresh filter coffee (we were up at 4am after 3hrs sleep the night before!)
Day one was spent installing the hardscape, siliconing it in place to ensure it did not move during transit.
Later we had a grand tour of the nurseries, following the whole process from growing the plants in tissue culture, to the green houses, to the potting process. I cannot express how impressive the whole thing was - it was truly mind blowing to see so many beautiful aquatic plants in one place, and seeing them develop from tiny specimens into bursting pots in the space of weeks was phenomenal.
In the evening Lars took us out to an amazing restaurant where we ate delightful steak and drank wonderful beer.
Day two was spent going out to the nurseries and selecting our plants, prepping and planting the tanks, including a 40cm tank planted with plants grown purely in the lab.
We went out for another incredible meal in the evening, including a few select beers, of course. At around £9 each though, we limited ourselves!
Anyway, enough of the words; you want photos…
Arrive in Aarhus, Denmark. -8C…
George and Dan position bases ready for hardscape to be siliconed into position for transit
Dan installing substrate
Dan siliconing in Sumatra Wood
Graeme installing hardscape; Old ADA Iron Wood and Petrified Wood
Dan inspects wood placement
Graeme admires his handy work
The UKAPS and TGM display tanks just after filling (full step-by-step to be published on Tropica website)
Dan ties the moss on
Graeme and Troels (David and Goliath!)
Dan and Graeme check out the new Tropica catalogue
Graeme and Dan hardscaping the 100cm Tropica acrylic display tank
Riccia, anyone?
The experimental lab filled with a wide variety of set-ups; from low-light non-CO2 to high-energy tanks
The lab with plants are grown from cells in inert conditions in special growing media. Fascinating stuff.
Dan and Graeme suffered from sore necks after a while…
Potting initial specimens. A few weeks later they will be ready for sale
Youngest plants at the front. Mature plants to the rear.
Amazon swords. Some over 8 foot tall.
Plants as far as the eye can see!
“My name is Graeme and I like aquarium plants!â€
More plants
And more plants
HC brimming over their pots
George Looks pensive whilst trying to decide which plants too choose, there is simply too much to choose from...
So lets have a bit of everything!
Echinodorus sp. flower
Moss on wood
A square meter of the healthiest moss I have ever seen!
Errr, more moss
Just in case you weren’t bored of moss yet…
The best room in the house
Hair anyone?
The working area where we drank litres of filter coffee, ate the most amazing baguettes, talked about plants, and aquascaped a total of four tanks
Just a few pots
Graeme chatting to the legendary Holger Windelov, founder of Tropica in 1970. It was a real honour to meet this great man who shared some amazing stories of his plant discoveries!
The fantastic Tropica main show tank using Elos gear. Absolutely algae-free and lit with 2 x 150w MH, 8 x 24w HO T5. With overflow and sump. Autodosing system. This beauty is 70cm front to rear depth.
George, Dan and Graeme planting the 40cm acrylic display aquascape with 100% laboratory grown plants
A real team effort
This wonderful trip has to come to an end.
