Picture this Aquarium Maart 2007.
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England reefers invade the Netherlands!
by Scott Booth.
The start
So where to begin eh? the beginning? the very beginning? before that perhaps? tell you where I'll start, Chris's front room, a case of Kronenbourg and enough Domino's Pizza to host the World Frisbee Championships, if there is such a thing.
T'was Friday, last week, about 6:30pm I got to his. Armed with 4 packs of batteries, my trusty digi-cam, a couple of hundred euros and a passport in me back pocket, we cracked open some bottles and went through our itinerary. "We are going to have to stick to a very tight schedule if we are going to get all this in, Ron really has done us proud, can't wait". Mr Reef-Bloke was there too, he couldn't make the weekend but being a fully-fledged Kentish muppet, he is of course always available for pizza and beer.
,We sat chatting, played a bit of Play station, couple more beers. Less time for sleeping, doesn't matter, we can sleep in the car (oh if we knew then!).
Tony leaves about midnight, me and Chris neck the remainder in the bottles and start to tidy up, hiding the pizza evidence in the bin outside we run the checklist.
Wallets...check, wash bags....check, passports....check. Alarm clocks set for 04:00, best pump a bit more air into this inflatable mattress, Chris attempts to wrestle with the spare duvet, "n'ah I'll just need a sheet Chris, far to warm for duvets, see you in a couple of hours, milk and two if you get up first".
I think, no, I am sure, I laid down, admired the bob the builder posters, blinked just once and discovered my phone making a dreadful racket, Chris banging on the door and the 'once-inflated' mattress has lost it's structure some what and is now cocooning me in a coffin of rubbery doom.
All I can say is I am so glad that no-one was about to see this, must have taken me a good 10 minutes of swearing, huffing and puffing to get out of the damned thing.
Not what you need after what appeared to be 2 and a half hours sleep. True to instruction tho, upon opening the door, there was Chris with a nice big sickeningly sweet mug of Java and a very awake looking face.
This bothered me ever so slightly. Is he smiling because he is excited? Smiling because he is wide-awake having not slept a wink? Or smiling because he knows what he has put in my coffee, too early to work it out.
Martin and the others will be here shortly best get ready. While I'm doing that, Chris headed off across town to pick up Jez. Jonock is driving around from Reading and leaving his car at Martin's, then the pair of them are picking up Pavlo, then down to get us 3 last.
At the exact pre-arranged time a large dark people carrier pulls up outside Chris's, we grab our stuff, check the doors and windows and head out into the darkness.
Unfortunately we used up all the Vaseline just trying to get the bags into the boot, would have been nice to have had some spare to grease up our elbows and knees. Although a large car, the biggest of all of us, I now understand completely what the little sardine was talking about when he saw his first submarine....
Right we're off. Holland here we come!!!!!............... (cue 'don't stop me now' by Queen)
637 metres later.............................
"sorry guys, I don't appear to have my passport on me, must have left it at Chris's, real sorry, my bad"
Search my bag, search the house, search my bag again "WELL IT WASN'T THERE A MINUTE AGO!!!"
Back on the road we hit the M20 heading straight for the Euro-Tunnel in Folkestone.
Now, I remember we had a giggle, we were laughing most of the way but what we talked about at this stage is anybodies guess. Haven't got a Danny La Rue what went on, I think I was still half asleep.
Arrived at the terminal 20 minutes late, possibly due to the 20 minutes I delayed us looking for my passport but personally, I like to think it was all Martin's fault, for no other reason than he had the steering wheel and control of the pedals, well, slightly more control than we had.
We checked in and decided to park up and go and get a coffee, we had a further 20 minutes till the next train.
Pavlo, Chris and myself fancied something cold and fizzy so wandered over to the 'King Burger' and bought some cokes, 'hmmm, BK breakfasts eh? never had one of those...AAARRGGHH...last nights pizza is lighting a bonfire in my chest, I know, I'll have half a dozen Rennies for breakfast instead, lovely stuff'
Back out to the car and the Rennies are kicking in, me and Chris have the very back row (not wise when combined we are 26 feet across)
Jez and Pavlo are in the middle two seats, Martin up front driving and Jonock/Nick in what later became the denial seat.
We drive on to the train and pull up behind a Volvo s40 estate, looked normal enough, had english plates yet somehow contained what appeared to be either a large litter of children or a tribe of pygmys.
Either way they surrounded the car, chocolaty noses pressed to the glass, staring at us in amazement. "So this is what my clownfish see".
30 or so minutes later and we have gone 'sous le manche' and about to hit the ground running.
We start heading Northward, Jez informs us that the record from Calais to Gorinchem is 2h18m set by Chris from STM and therefore, given the weight limits of our vehicle and lack of crash helmets, it will probably take us 3h30m.
He might have been right, I have no idea, my beard grew in such a manner I couldn't uncover my watch.
We are due at Ron Hessing's house for 11:00 to "have sandwiches and take some coffee". Sounds wonderful, just what we need after this long trip.
"In 100 yards, you have reached your destination".......cheers tomtom
"Can anybody see a space? What's that one there? Disabled huh? Anybody fancy limping?"
We park up by the side of a very pretty canal near Peterbrug bridge and Chris goes off to get a ticket from the meter.
Gorinchem
Trouble is all we have in our pockets are fresh crisp Euro notes, not spent anything yet to get change for the machine. Jez and Chris volunteer to venture forth and retrieve sufficient coinage.
A few minute pass, Pavlo photographs a windmill, Martin, not happy with his parking, amends whatever he wasn't happy with, Jonock and I admire a humunga-balled Bulldog being walked by a local and wonder if he had anything to do with the mess on the road behind the car, the bulldog that is, not the local.
Some more minutes pass and eventually Chris and Jez return, bizarrely from the other side of the canal, we are all certain they didn't cross.
Not sure what they spent their notes on but they were both giggling and holding hands, well, not holding hands per se, not that i could be sure of anyway.
Back at the car, Jez tells us a bit about Gorinchem, you know, the usual stuff. "Over there is where the nightlife is, down that way is where the....." you get the picture.
Chris in the mean time has gone to get a ticket. Thing is, although a multiskilled modern man, Chris has never bothered to learn Dutch, and so is stumped by the grey and orange box before him.
He pushes this button, pushes that button gives it a shake, mutters under his breath. Eventually a couple of happy locals, this time without maraca shaking canines, come over to assist. Seems these machines don't take coins after all
Ticket in the windscreen we walk back the way we drove in, back to the point tomtom got angry and asked us to "perform a legal U-turn". Down here a few hundred yards, right at that shop, left at the end a bit "you have arrived"........err..........no we haven't, this is a dvd rental shop.
As much as I'd love to watch 'Mrs Doubtfire' with subtitles, I fear it has been a bit of an expensive journey just to see cheesy Robin Williams classics.
Martin gets on the phone to Ron. "yah, ok, you are not near my house, stay where you are, I will drive to you and then you can follow me back". We do as instructed, Martin and Jez run off to go and retrieve the car we didn't need to park.
seems tomtom has dropped us off completely the wrong side of town. Ah well we'll soon be back on track. Before long a dark car pulls up next to us and Ron Hessing jumps out and says hi to Nick.
Nick introduces Ron to the rest of us. Driving the car is Ron's friend Danny. He leaps out and comes over, it doesn't take us long to work out that we are in fact nowhere near Ron's house, bad tomtom, naughty tomtom!!!
"Where is Martin?" Ron asks. "He's just gone with Jez to fetch the car, hang on, that'll be them coming up that no entry road".
We all get back in the cars and start following Ron back to his house.
Ron's town appears to be very beautiful, classically styled Dutch terraces, narrow streets, windmills in abundance and the occasional canal, we are there before we know it.
When we arrive we are met by Ron's wife, Amber, and another of our hosts, Andre.
Andre owns a company called Aquatropicana, he does various marine projects and delivers sharks and difficult marine life for DeJong in Spijk.
Oh I mustn't forget, Ron's beautiful Bull Mastiff, Mack named after the trucks. A large crinkly-faced beast who takes an instant dis-like to a couple of our group. "I have a bull mastiff at home, a girl, your boy is huuuuge".
Coffees are served and we all jostle for position around Ron's amazing tank, well not all, due to crowd control I elect to stand back for a bit and play with the dog.
Ron appears to have it all, a beautiful tank, nice home, lovely city. He then tells us Amber will be joining us for the rest of the weekend as "not only is she happy for me to have a marine aquarium, she is an enthusiast and enjoys everything reef also".
For those of you reading this that can't relate to such things, you may be feeling that you already don't like Ron. You wait till we get more familiar with the rest of the group, they'll all make you sick
Ron has quite recently removed his large 8-foot system that was a room divider. He has 3 children, a couple of dogs, space has become a concern, as it does for a lot of people.
Having an enthusiast for a wife helps tho' as it means he was able to put in this 186cm x 70cm x 70cm (6'1" x 2'3.5" x 2'3.5") up near an end wall in his dining room.
The cabinet is massive, very well made and frames the tank perfectly made of wood it incorporates an over the tank canopy supporting his halides.
2x400w Giesseman single pendants are held by this canopy. They are a fair distance from the tanks surface but Ron says that due to the clarity of his water and the fact they are 400w he has sufficient light, as the corals grow more they will off course be closer to the surface, 2 x 54w T5 actinics sit below the canopy, closer to the surface.
As you can see from the pics, Ron's tank is quite young but showing amazing growth. His parameters are perfect, 0.0 phosphate, 0.0 nitrate, yet so many fish and such little rock, "you must have a monster skimmer?".
Ron opens his cabinet to show his sump and 'equipment'. When I see his modified ballpoint pen he calls a skimmer, I laugh. Pavlo nervously snaps under his breath "don't laugh at it".
I'm sorry Ron, it is all I can do. I could put Ron's skimmer in a Kinder egg.
"The thing is, I am wanting to have a more biological aquarium with less technical equipment. It is all about balance, when you can balance your fishes needs with the needs of your coral, then balance this with your equipment, it is possible to run a reef aquarium with very little equipment". "As my fish grow and the corals grow, so my balance will change and I must adjust my regime to suit it. It is constant work but it is very rewarding and works best for me".
Can't argue with that Ron.
Filtration is carried out as biologically as possible. Ron relies on his live rock to process nutrients and carries out frequent large water changes to remove DOC's, 10%-15% a week at the moment but this will increase as his fish and coral grow.
In addition the small skimmer, AquaCareFlotor 1000v sits in the sump. Ron doesn't use a calcium reactor "I add calcium and KH by pure pharmacist products.
Calcium chloride and I use BioCalcium from Tropic Marin, I don't add trace elements".
Flow in the tank is achieved by the sump return, an Eheim 1260 and 2 Tunze 6100 streams on a controller. The guards on the stream have been modified. Every third grill bar has been removed, this is because Ron believes calcerous algae and detritus can build up on the guards and limit the flow of water being drawn by the propellor.
Ron doesn't have any fish small enough to enter the pump, nor does he have an anemone that can wander into it. In this tank, with this stock, it seems to be a worthwhile modification.
What he is doing, clearly works and works well. His colour and growth is superb, fish in abundance, colourful and thriving. This tank looks great now but there is a lot of space for corals to grow into, I would very much like to see this system again in 18 months to 2 years, I'll happily bet my house that this system will be incredible.
And if he achieves the final result using his 'limited techniques' approach, I feel he may start a huge wave of new age reefers. Having less equipment seems to mean you have to put more time into your maintenance, ideal when you enjoy that anyway but quite how Ron finds the time to do all this, maintain his websites and forum, write articles for a Dutch magazine called Het Aquarium AND now write for Anthony Calfo's new magazine 'C..the journal' is beyond me
We all crowd in to get pictures and to stare at his large green Fiji acro. "Is it too early in the weekend to accidentally break/frag a coral" probably, if we make Ron angry now he may not take us to all the other destinations on the itinerary. In hindsight, we chose well.
We wondered if we were going to see Danny's tank but he tells us how he has only recently taken it down. He had a non-photosynthetic tank featuring Gorgonians, Dendronepthyas and Scleronepthyas.
His tank ran for over a year, the majority of his experience was a success but he learnt a lot from it and knows which varieties just can't be kept. As such Danny is part way into his latest project a 240cm L x 140 cm W x 90 cm H (7'11" x 4'8" x 3') non-photosynthetic display. He is taking what he has learnt so far and will be putting it to the test in this monster tank, if ever there was an excuse to buy another train ticket, this is it!!!
Amsterdam
We all saddle up again, back in the cars. "You must follow close Martin, we are going into the centre of Amsterdam now, it will be very busy, it is about 45 minutes away".
Naturally as you would expect we spend the next hour discussing what we have just seen, what can we learn from Ron's tank, how are we going to adapt his methodology into our own regimes? Who is going to be the first one to butcher their streams!
We arrive in Amsterdam and busy doesn't cut it. I know the Dutch are big on their bicycles but blimey, I thought we were in a very flat Beijing.
You even hesitate for a split second and they start crossing the road and once they start, the whole of Holland wants a piece of the action. We try in vain to find a parking space, all the canals look the same so I can't be sure we weren't just doing circles.
Eventually we mount a curb, drive up a path and pull into the back garden of a large building. There is scaffolding, rubble and pipe work everywhere.I hope we haven't just taken advantage of an unlocked building site. We dismount and meet a chap called Jan-Willem Esselaar. "Follow me" he says, so we do.
We go up some steps and through a back door, down a little hall and through another one to find ourselves in what appears to be the foyer of a very lavish hotel, the 4star hotel Estherea no less.
Classical music is playing, shiny people go about their business all over the place and then, the unmistakable glow of a fish tank glitters off the crystal chandeliers.
This time, what with there being no dog, I power walk around the group and get a prime spot on the far side of the tank. The colours are incredible, all set off by the fact it is a room divider set entirely within a wall both sides, not often you see that.
Leather couches and coffee tables one side, hotel reception the other, I can think of no better setting for such a tank.
We don't get long to drool as we are directed to a private dining room that faces the tank. Tall silver tiered trays of fresh cut sandwiches are in front of us, and an array of glasses filled with steaming black coffee.
Everybody grabs a plate and an armchair, and sits back in admiration. I grab a roll, sit back get comfy, then realise that it contains some form of soft cheese.
I debate whether I should grin and bare it and try not to be ill in front of polite company, or maybe pass it on to someone subtly. I opt for the latter, and give it to Chris, after all, he will eat anything.
Thankfully he checked it first and discovered that in the cheese are finely chopped walnuts. Chris has a nut allergy, I know this, I didn't (despite what he accused me of) know they were in there when I passed him the sandwich.
Long story short, he survived (dang). I forgot to ask what coffee we were drinking.
As mentioned earlier I am a milk and 2 man, the Dutch it seems don't have milk in coffee and so I drank this black. Dagnabbit if it wasn't the best cup of coffee I've ever had, probably cost more per cup than my car but blimey, worth paying a return visit just to get some more!!!
This tank is 255cm x 70cm x 70 cm (8'4" x 2'4" x 2'4") and sculpted brilliantly.
Viewable from two sides, clearly a lot of time went into this tanks design. The growth and colour was mind blowing, absolutely stunning. Even more impressive when he opened the doors above to reveal the whole system is lit by 2 ATI pendants containing 8x54w T5's each.
These units have built in fans on top to cool the units making the lamps 20% more efficient apparently.
Each pendant contains 3 'Fiji purple' tubes and 5 'coralite' whites, both units are dimmable and are the sole source of light over this aquarium. Once we saw these we realised that the tank was lacking the usual halide ripple, we also noted that nobody had noticed this in the first place.
Hmmm's and errrr's were heard echoing around the room, and everybody had that 'if i get rid of my halides' look on their faces.
Flow is approximately 20 times total volume turnover and is achieved by two Eheim 1262's returning from the under tank sump, the Red Devil return from the downstairs sump and two of the classic Tunze Turbelle pumps.
I've rarely seen these pumps in use in the UK but they seem to be as ever poular in Holland due to their flow not being as fierce as the Tunze stream models. The rock is very open within and so with just these 5 pumps, a dead spot free tank has been achieved.
Jan Willem takes us through reception, behind the desk, and down a myriad of hallways to a cellar. In here he has his downstairs sump tank, which is where his Bubble King 300 protein skimmer resides. These skimmers are very very popular in Holland, I asked about prices of them, and we think we have it tough!!!
Also in this cellar is his 300gpd R/O unit and all his top up equipment, plus a further 1000 Litre sump isolated for water changes. Jan-Willem changes 10% a week, every week.
Parameter wise this tank maintains Ca of 400-450ppm, Mag of 1350 pH of 7.9, 0.0 PO4 and 1-3ppm No3. In this next picture you can see his Aquamedic 5000 calcium reactor, suitably large enough for this tanks needs.
The under the tank sump also houses a pretty large Zeo filter running full zeo-vit shaken daily.
In this tank are approximately 40 fish, Jan-Willem was unsure, he clearly hadn't kept count and I wasn't about to start, he settled on 40 being a pretty good guess. To these 40(ish) fish he feeds frozen food and supplements with vitamins and amino acids.
He feeds regularly and has had great success keeping his square, evansi and tuka Anthias but he admits his favourite fish is his Sohal tang.
Before we left I asked Jan-Willem a couple of questions. "for how long have you been keeping reef tanks?". "Two and a half years" the reply. "Sorry, I'm not very clear, you say this tank is two and a half years old. What I am asking is, before this tank, how long had you been a reef keeper". "No, I understand ok, this is my first tank". Would you believe he even had the nerve to smile.
I told him as it is, "You Dutch guys have been very friendly, very humble about your aquariums, your hospitality knows no bounds, we couldn't ask for more, however, I am really beginning to dislike you buggers!!!!!" Thankfully they laughed, easy going dudes these Dutch.
Just enough time to bang off some more pics before we leave.
We said farewell to our host and file out through the doors, down the steps, across the scaffold, and back to the car. We are told we are now going to Rotterdam to see Pieter van Suijlekom's famous curved aquarium, or 6-metre-peter as he shall now be known.
I've been looking forward to seeing this one for some time, ever since seeing it as Tank Of The Month on Reef Central back in February last year. I remember being intrigued about where the tank is situated, what environment is it in, will it look as large when face to face, what kind of a man will 6-metre-peter be to have such a tank?
We drive for some time staying hot on the tail of our Dutch hosts up in front. It is somewhere on this journey that the conversation turns blue and Martin divulges his latest creation to make him wealthy, it's called 'The Lakinator' and shall be available online very soon, well, we tell him that's what he should market. He laughed with us nervously.
Now, Whether this was because of the accusations we were making of him or whether we were just a bit too close to home, I'll let you decide. Jez brings up the old pornstar name game, you know, the one where you take your first pet's name and your mother's maiden name and stick them together.
After much hilarity I pray we don't get stopped by Dutch police, for I know there would have been no chance that I wouldn't be able to resist introducing us as Trixie Dixon, Buster West, Hooker Mcleod and Sugar Waddington.
I shan't tell you who is who to protect the identities of the innocent, however bare in mind who brought the topic up, doesn't reflect well on them now does it.
Schiedam
We arrive in a pretty little town and park up in what appears to be a very select area, kind of like those areas in London near St Catherine's dock. Lots of loft conversions and spotless streets.
We wander round to yet another canal and follow it for a short time to a large building containing many flats. We get buzzed through a gate and proceed up some external stairs to a balcony.
This balcony twists and turns with the contours of the building and has several numbered doors leading to flats. I'm beginning to question this 6-metre-peter business.
How on earth would he have gotten it up 2 storeys and through these small doorways. The last door (it's always the furthest door isn't it) was open, and standing in it was a nice young fellow called Tanne.
We all shook hands and he pointed us into his living room. We were about to find out that whilst en route to 6-metre-peter's, a plan had been made to pop in to Tanne's first to see his aquarium.
I was quite relieved once inside to see that there weren't any 6 metre tanks up here. You may be forgiven for thinking that after expecting to see an ocean, coming face to face with Tanne's 130cm (4'4") tank would be disappointing. Far from it, we all stood there jaws on the floor. The amount of colour, the amount of coral, the fish, all took our breath away.
Tanne did what the Dutch do best, apologised for the limited growth, this tank is new too. Now, in this country we are guilty of the same thing "I know it's not much to look at" or "I hate that bit of cyano round there" or "It could do with a few more corals" we all do it to some extent, then our guest will say "oh no, it looks lovely" and we say "cheers, glad you like it". Out there, they really mean it, they genuinely look at these tanks and see poor growth or colours not as vivid as they would like. I have concluded that either the Dutch are too polite for their own good or they are a nation of tall friendly blind people.
Tanne's tank is very special indeed, amazingly scaped, the rear pane and half the left pane have black styrofoam panels attached to them upon which he has mounted various corals. It gives the impression of both more rockwork and a larger system despite only being 130cm x 70cm x 80cm (4'3" x 2' 3.5" x 2' 7.5") . If you like fish, you'd love this tank, where possible Tanne tries to keep fish in pairs, a pair of flame angels, a pair of regal angels, a pair of bangaiis, a pair of yellow tangs, a pair of mystery wrasse, a pair of clowns etc etc.
He also has an orange spotted file fish, you read correctly, in an SPS tank. A Gem tang scooches around the bottom shyly.
Tanne tells us that in his experience there are 2 types of Gem tang. Those that have coloured spots and those without any spots unless stressed, when white spots are visible. He has the white spotted variety and says that this kind has a more timid temperament than its slightly more colourful cousin.
When he upgrades his tank size in the near future, Tanne will be passing on his white spotted gem and getting a pair of coloured ones.. Tanne feeds his fish dry spirulina, salifert energy+ and when introducing a new fish, added protein.
The tank is lit by 2 x 150w BLV 10kK lamps on electronic ballasts, 2x 39w T5 Coralite tubes and 2 x 54w T5 D+D Aquablue plus tubes.
The small sump underneath was immaculately clean, in fact the whole system looked very clean, even his supplement bottles were lined up, labels to the front, I wouldn't mind betting they were in alphabetical order.
The return flow from sump to display is 12 x per hour using a Red Dragon pump. This pump was incredibly silent and is the same one that was on his BubbleKing 200 skimmer. when we were standing next to this system it was clearly silent, and not 'reefer silent' either but 'wife silent'. Any wife would have approved of this system.
Also in the sump is the Zeo reactor. This reactor is a bit special, Tanne has had it customised so he can fit a large pump to the side to recirculate the stones rather than having to physically shake them, he is just waiting to get the correct pump and then he will be testing it.
In the back of the tank are 3 mangroves, Tanne says "on a smaller system these trees would be very useful for nutrient export but on a system this size, i think they are just for fun".
To the left of the sump is a small calcium reactor, and this is where this system gets a bit special. When I asked "what calcium levels do you maintain" Tanne replied "between 200 and 500ppm". I waited for the punch line......there wasn't one. "Between 200 and 500??? that's like me saying I am between 100 and 400 kg". "Well you see, my calcium reactor is very small, so if it goes crazy, it still wont be enough to damage my reef tank, I add a lot of supplements to this system, and it takes care of the rest". "Ok then Tanne, what do you dose?" I asked. "You'll need more paper"
Daily: 2 x .50ml of Zeo Start. 1 drop of 'pulsecoral vitalizer'. 1-2 drops of amino acid. 2 days: 2 drops of potassium, 2 drops of iron, and 3ml of B-balance. Weekly: Zeovit, 35ml of macro element. Bi-Weekly: 18 drops of 'styloporcy grow' and tropic marin Bio-Calcium.
4 weekly: a 25% water change is carried out using Reef Crystals and Korrallin Reefers Best. When this tank was first set up Tanne had every problem you can imagine "apart from fish dieing or equipment failure, if you can think of it, it happened to me". Tanne started doing weekly 50% water changes to bring things in line and started using Zeo-vit. He is very clear that these two upgrades to the system are the reason it is where it is now.
As a side note, Tanne's apartment has beautiful solid wood floors, I remarked on how they weren't water stained at all. Tanne seems the sort of person that would have some ingenious way of combating this and so I asked how he could maintain a floor like this and still do 50% water changes. "It is very simple, I have a 50 gallon container out there (he points to either the kitchen or bathroom) and I mix my new water in there, then I syphon 25% out of the tank straight to the drain, do maintenance on the tank, then fill with fresh water by pump".
That's all well and good Tanne but why does that mean your floors are spotless? "Oh, I use a lot of towels" So what does he mean when he says he maintains the tank when the water is out? "Well when I remove the water the level drops about 8 inches exposing corals, this does not harm the corals but allows me to attach new corals, remove dead skeleton and generally clean the aquarium without getting my hands wet.
The only problem is pocillipora and stylophora don't like the air, this is why young corals are mounted lower down". What a good idea, hmmmm, so far I am reducing my rock, butchering my streams, getting dimmable T5's over my tank and binning my halides, I am now going to be adding a Zeo-vit system and draining my tank periodically. This trip is fast changing the way I do everything!
Tanne is a biology teacher at high school, he teaches 12-16 year olds. We all cringe when he tells us, but he says he really enjoys it.
He has a nano reef on his desk at work and uses it constantly to teach the children. Tanne is also the Editor and writer for a Dutch reefkeeping magazine called Het Zeeaquarium and shows us a recent article he did on a friend's nano.
A 12 Litre tank fully stocked with coral and 20 fish. He opens the magazine to the centre spread where a full tank picture is displayed, he laughs as he tells us that the picture is actually bigger than the tank is in real life, can't say I have heard of that before. We all laughed when Tanne told us that on this particular tank, the owner does a 1 litre water change per week!
We all take turns in taking pictures, I think you could go there with a 20 year old knackered Polaroid and still this tank would look good.
Even I managed to get decent pics of it. A plate of Dutch caramelly biscuits was put out and a selection of soft drinks.
Jez sat back, ate most of the biscuits and happily fussed Tanne's cat, well, until after a few minutes he remembered he is allergic to cats.
Andre then told us with a smile on his face that in Holland, a cat is called a 'pussy' well, you live and learn.
As we began to leave, Tanne told us he was coming with us, would there be space to jump in our car? "yes" Martin said. Me and Chris look at each other rather panicked, who's lap is he gonna sit on???? "it's ok" Tanne said, "I will take my car, meet you there".
We got back in the cars and measured the gap in the back seat, approximately 4 inches, now, Tanne is slim but I think that may have been asking too much of him.
It's dark now and the roads are busy with commuters getting home.
Vlaardingen
We are right at the business end of the Rhine near Rotterdam in a town called Vlaardingen. Large ships tower over buildings all around. Eventually we park up outside a fireplace shop called 'Open-Haarden Centrum' which I believe is Dutch for 'reefers paradise, oh and you can buy mantle pieces'.
Getting out of the cars we see a frag tank in a small downstairs window "that is the sump room" Danny tells us, "let's go up, you will see that later".
First thing we come across is this tall cylinder tank by the reception desk. It contains mainly pipefish and seahorses and is connected to the main system.
Once upstairs, well, this is a family forum, would be impolite of me to express myself in a natural manner but suffice to say, if you are anti-expletives and not fond of blasphemy, you don't want to know what words I have bouncing around inside my head.
Shaking hands with 6-metre-peter was quite an honour. Friendly and smiling, it was obvious this is a man used to visitors coming in off the streets with carpet burns on their chins. He very much let us get on with the business of perving over his tank whilst he went back to his other guests.
The size of this thing is mind blowing, the way it wraps around you, I think the best mental image I can give you is sitting in an I-max cinema. Unless you turn your head, all you see is aquarium. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not complaining, apparently there is nothing I like more than having my peripheral vision filled with rare fish and dazzling corals, who knew?
We stopped gawping for a second and realised we had now been joined by a further two chaps, Shiva (a crazy member on here who's grasp of the British sense of humour was incredible) and Richard, Pieter's right hand man and caretaker.
A system this size needs constant attention, Pieter obviously has to run his fireplace business and so Richard helps out.
The top fascia of the tank is on sliding runners similar to those found on kitchen drawers, only industrial strength. The whole top appears to be made of aluminium and so is light enough to be pulled out by one person, as demonstrated here by Richard, it advances exactly one meter.
This makes the simple things like feeding a hell of a lot easier.
This is the first tank where we have all pulled our cameras out at the same time and not jostled for position, room for everyone, and their elbows. The back pane is 6 metres long, and at the ends the tank is 170cm wide, obviously narrowing in the middle as the back wall is straight.
The overall depth is 80cm.
There is also an end pane which allows you to see down the entire length. The water in this system is clearer than it is when you look down my tank, yet it is nearly 3 times longer than mine, already I am disliking 6-metre-peter.
lighting this tank are 3 x 1000w Metal halides and 6 x 400w Metal halides, all in individual pendants. To get the most from them, Pieter changes his lamps every 8 months without fail.
6-metre-peter also has 6 small flounders that seem to relish the fine substrate and open space. All you see at first is eyes, then the inevitable shadow makes them want to move.
Pieter tells us that he used to remove his gravel bed every few weeks in the past as he adores the clean look, he has since put in a fine coral sand bed and says this is the best thing he ever did. 35 bags of sand were added in the end. To combat the tunze effect on the sand, whenever it got too shallow in an area, another bag was added.
Ron says to me "we are going to eat dinner here, you like Chinese food"? "ooh lovely Ron, sounds great".
I figured what he meant was that we would all look at a menu, pick what we wanted then split the bill. What we weren't prepared for was Pieter paying out for a Chinese chef to turn up with a full-on catering kit and more chinese food than China itself could eat.
We grabbed our plates and helped ourselves, choosing to sit along the bar in the middle of the shop. When I say bar, I mean a proper bar, optics, bar stools, the works.
Pieter steps behind and divvies up ice cold bottles of Heineken "when in the land of Heineken, you must drink Heineken" hey, I wont argue with you matey!
After dinner we go down into the sump rooms to see the business end of matters.
Deltec stirrers and fluidizers are used on this system and an H&S P20 skimmer about 7 feet tall!
The pump on the right is a monster swimming pool pump and is used as the sump rooms return.
6-metre-peter has fresh live mysid shrimp delivered weekly to feed the tanks. they are kept in an open polybox. Despite this Pieter feeds 18-24 blister packs of food a week!!!
Pieter tells us that after 2 years a reef tank doesn't look it's best, at least in his opinion and so his regime is to clip his corals regularly so that they don't restrict internal flow and light and every 2 years he strips the tank empty and starts again.
With 1000kg of live rock that sounds like a lot of hard work but his tank was immaculate, if stripping it back and starting again keeps it looking like this then good on him. Mind you, I suspect that he also gets a lot of enjoyment from tinkering, planning and changing his system.
We spend several very happy hours, sat at the bar, drinking beer, eating incredible food, chatting reefness with a group of very friendly easy going people. I would have sold up and moved in if I thought I could live without my wife and son.
Alas the evening drew to a close, we had to leave, another fun filled day planned for tomorrow, can't stay here all night, sadly.
We say our good nights to Shiva, Tanne, Richard, 6-metre-peter and his wife, and got back in the car to follow Ron back to our hotel. By this point we are shattered, it's been a hell of a long time since we set off from Chris's this morning, we are all ready for bed.
Pulling up at the Campanile Hotel we arranged a time to meet Ron, Danny, Andre and Amber in the morning and then went to check in waving them off as we did so. All checked in we say good night to each other..."anyone fancy a night cap?" Jez is heard to say. "meet you back here in 5 minutes" everybody else replies.
Straight into the rooms, dump the bags, stick my face in a sink full of water, ah that's better, much more awake now. Downstairs, into the car, and Jez starts directing us into Gorinchem.
Parked near the centre of town, all piled out and started walking in. "Hmmmm, something's not right why is the floor an inch deep in confetti and ticker tape??? More to the point, why does everyone seem to have clown trousers and fluorescent wigs on". We hear music down a side road and follow the sound. 2 pubs are in front of us, one with what appears to be very loud karaoke and the other with what appears to be a much slower pace, and a little more class. We opt for the quieter one.
Inside, a round is quickly drawn up, "4 of your largest beers and 2 cokes please". I went and held the table whilst the others fetched the drinks. Upon their return, they are all laughing. It would seem a large beer in this place is half a wine glass of Pilsner, half a glass of foam. Two gulps and it is gone, back up to the bar, "2 pilsner, 4 hoegaarden, 2 leffi and 4 cokes please"
We sat on a nice large solid oak table beside a massive window. From here we were able to watch the ladies, well we would have if we could tell them apart. Everyone was in clown costumes, faces painted, fluoro wigs and led's flashing everywhere yet all very friendly, we've never been waved at so much. Jez gets impatient, "there's clearly a party going on somewhere and we aren't at it, I'm gonna go and ask someone". And with that he slides back his chair, yanks open the door and he's off, chasing after crazy multicoloured clowns.
When he gets back he informs us that today was Dutch carnival day. By now time is pressing on and we have an early start in the morning. Pavlo has been on the coke all evening so that Martin could have a drink and wont need to drive back. Jez is wildly outvoted on the 'lets all gate crash a party' idea, dejected, he leads us to the car instead. We all get in, Pavlo jumps in the driver's seat and we are off, with the wipers going nineteen to the dozen. Few more expletives and Pavlo decides he isn't all that fond of column shift cars!
Once again we say our good nights and split off in our pairs to our rooms, Martin shared with Jez, Pavlo shared with Nick, Me and Chris in the last room. I wont pass comment on what the others watched but me and Chris settled down to the Dustin Hoffman classic, 'Tootsie'. Chris nearly made the end, I had to turn the volume up, Chris snores!!!
Day 2
The hotel is in the middle of no-where, save for a McDonalds drive thru immediately opposite. We had arranged to meet over there when we got up, have a coffee and a McMuffin kind of thing.
Chris and Me had slept-in somewhat, with no daylight in the room (large blind type thing) we hadn't woken up naturally. Chris jumped up and checked the time, "blimey it's 10 am, what time were we meeting, where are we, who the hell are you?" We opened the blinds and strained to see who was sitting in McDonalds.
Chris is convinced he can see Martin and maybe Jez sitting opposite him. I am convinced I can see a small girl sitting with a spaniel. Chris grabs a shower, I watch the news. Chris gets out of the shower I jump in. 30 seconds later we are both packed and dressed. "There, see, that must be Pavlo and Nick sitting behind Martin and Jez, told you it was them" Chris says peering through the window again. I take another look "no, the same little girl is sitting there, but her spaniel has had puppies".
We check out of the hotel, drag our bags over to McDonalds. Sure enough, Chris was right, there weren't any spaniels to be seen. We ordered coffees, I burnt my tongue and 20 minutes later Ron, Danny, Andre and Amber had returned.
You know the drill now, all into cars, Martin fights his instincts and follows them, we sit in the back making lewd Lakinator comments.
The underwaterzoo, De Discus, Leerdam.
Ron had decided to lead us somewhere very special, his local aquarium societies headquarters called 'De Discus' in Leerdam. An incredible place with 44 tanks, some reef, some fish only, some planted freshwater etc etc.
Ron has recently been made up to a board member and is very proud of the place, to be fair, everyone was, they are all involved.
The society is based in the basement of an old peoples hospital. The hospital has many aquariums in the wards and the society maintain them for free, in turn the hospital supplies them rent free with the entire basement level. Apart from the 44 tanks the area hosts a cafe/bar and an aquarium shop open only to the members. The area is used as a venue for wedding receptions or parties and also houses school children on educational visits.
In the near future Ron informs us that they will be having English speaking lectures and English reefers are more than welcome.
Entirely run by volunteers it is an incredible concept. Those that perhaps can't afford a large system get to turn up at a clubhouse and play with massive tanks to their hearts content.
Out the back in a separate room is a workshop, filled with benches and tools, and spare glass piled high. Here is where members can go to DIY, invent or modify. The club first formed in 1970 and took the premises in 1990. It's been open to the public now for 17 years. They rely mainly on donations and sponsorship, with several display tanks being sponsored by large national and international corporations. We went on a Sunday and the place was packed within a couple of hours.
On sundays 'De Discus' is open to the public at the very reasonable rate of 4 Euros per adult, 2 Euros for children over 3 years old. People come from all around and I believe Ron said they have over 4000 visitors a year as members of the public.
We'd barely got through the door when a full on traditional Dutch breakfast was served, it would seem the Dutch can only eat a meal if they are sitting near a massive aquarium, a lifestyle I am currently trying to run past the Mrs.
Because they are open to the public for more than 7 days a year they have to conform to Dutch zoological laws. You can't just turn up and donate a clownfish for instance. Every bit of life has to come with the correct paperwork - when it comes in and when it goes out. The future looks rocky for them tho.
They have been told that in 5 years the building will be torn down and they will have to find new premises. Ron is getting heavily involved with local officials and politicians and is confident they can sort something out before it is too late.
I hope so, I will certainly be returning within the next 5 years but it would be nice to know I can take my baby son there in 10 years or so, when he is old enough.
After all that we sat around a large table off to one side and discussed the merits of using natural sea water, how would you go about retrieving it, treating it etc. Usual reefy conversations over a few cokes. Time has escaped us and Ron suddenly says that we really must be making a move.
We beat a hasty retreat and saddle up. This time 6-metre-peter and Richard will be meeting us, Tanne will be there, everyone is coming along as we are going to De Jongs
De Jong Marinelife, Spijk.
Now if you don't know what De Jongs is, I shall explain, only tho' after you have hung your head in shame for at least 30 seconds
De Jongs is one of the largest marine wholesalers in the world, they supply marine life to a large portion of Europe and a lot of the larger public aquariums. Andre has delivered many a shark for them across the continent.
Based in Spijk in Holland the current owner is a chap called Arie DeJong who took the place over from his parents in 1982, some 24 years after they first opened it.
He was willing to open his doors on a Sunday, just to give us the tour. Now that IS impressive. They have at least 25,000 fish and inverts in at any one time and I think you'll agree from these photos, it is as close to reef-keeping heaven as any Reefer is likely to get.
I don't know if the public have ever been allowed in before, especially to take photos for publishing but Arie was more than happy for us to give it a go "provided the article is very good, I do not mind"
Livestock comes through these doors at the end of what we called the red room. When livestock arrives this room is only lit with red lamps to limit the stress on the animals. Everything is de-bagged here and allocated to the many, many tanks on each side of the room. Here it stays, in quarantine, for a period and everything is kept in natural sea water with a secret added ingredient.
This ingredient makes the water look slightly yellow. Now, you must appreciate before seeing these first pictures that this is near the entrance, we'd just come in, the heat and humidity was incredible and it was 5 degrees outside, subsequently my lens fogged for the first 10 minutes. OR if you want to be really generous, marvel at my amazing moody photography, it was entirely deliberate.
In this room are the 2 shark tanks. The main tank is for large sharks and the smaller (smaller!!) round tank is for smaller or up settable sharks.
On our visit this had smallish white tip reef sharks in, apparently as they can get aggressive when stressed, and you don't want them mixing with the bigger more placid sharks if they are going to be a bit naughty.
Just after this picture was taken of us, Ron asked if we would like to go in. Chris and me started undoing our shoelaces instantly. Ron had a look on his face like we were mad. "I’ll pay you to let us take a dip". he just laughed at us, thankfully Pavlo came in to the room. "here Paul, how much would you pay to get into this tank?". Paul put his shoes next to ours and pulled a scuba mask from his pocket, Ron ran out of the room screaming for assistance!
Once the livestock has been sufficiently quarantined, it is then moved out into the main room. This room, easily the size of a football pitch, is segregated into sections. The large shallow tanks are split in the middle. At the front of the store is the softie tank, here you find gorgonians, ricordias, leathers, zoanthids, coco worms and the like, also a massive amount of fromia and linkia starfish. In the centre divide are 3 large zeo vit reactors, and the second section contains the sps and some lps.
Over the SPS tanks are 144 54w T5 tubes, all in 8 massive pendants.
Down the side of the room are a set of tanks for motile inverts. Here is where you find your hermit crabs, snails, conches, urchins, cucumbers and octopus. I counted 3 blue ringed octopus, they were stunning!
Tony B is the guy most commonly associated with getting his jollies over skimmers, when they are over 10 foot tall tho, anybody can succumb.
At the bottom end of the room is several feet of lps, euphyllias and the like.
There are several vats of clams, this was the most tightly packed.
There are 4 rows of fish tanks, mainly grouped, all cleverly housed to limit aggravating interaction. These tanks were incredible, some of the things we saw, my word, if ever there was a time to apply for a job in an LFS. Jez reckons you become immune to it after a while, I think its just a wicked plan to stop me bugging Chris at STM for work!
"We all drew straws to see who would create enough of a diversion to steal all the goodies, Pavlo held his close to his chest"
"hmmm, so that'd be me then?"
ARRGGGGGHHHHH THIS TANK'S LEAKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(now guys! now!!!!!)
On this side of the fish tanks are a series of individual mini tanks for holding smaller hard to catch species, mandarins, black cap grammas (yes grammas, 'undreds of 'em), algae blennies, bi-colours, royal grammas and small clowns.
Then a bit further up we have the invert tanks, harlequin shrimps, arrow headed crabs, mythrax crabs etc etc.
Out in this side room is where you find yet more fish and other odds and sods. Tanks filled with blood shrimp and cleaner shrimp, a tank full of zebra eels and snowflakes. Larger marine fish are out here too.
Know this is blurry, but this was a stunning Queen Trigger.
...and here in the car park is where we had to say our good byes.
It was an absolutely incredible weekend, one I consider myself most fortunate to have been invited too. I, we, really do want to emphasize our gratitude to the Dutch guys, in particularly our tour guides, Andre, Danny and Ron.
Not just thank you for making it all happen, or for taking us round it all and explaining everything so clearly, but also for the sheer welcoming we got. We honestly could not have asked to meet more friendly people. To do what they did for us, just out of friendship, it was hard to swallow and made us feel very humble.
Thank you, thank you, thank you guys!!! We WILL have to meet up again that is for certain and one day repays the favour. Stay in touch and take care!
Thanks also to my fellow road trippers, most of these pics are theirs, don't ask me which ones belong to who, and thanks to Chris for spending almost as much time as I did on this, making sure that all the pictures that I kept deleting, came back.............
............and to everyone else reading this, thank you for baring with us to the end. I never imagined that this would turn into 3 pages of just me dribbling on!
Text by Scott Booth. Pictures taken by Scott, Martin, Chris, Nick, Jez and Paul.
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