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introducing Wim from the Netherlands

17K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  eos  
#1 ·
hi all,

After almost two years of regular lurking here I decided to say Hello to you all and introduce myself. The reason I have been hesitating so long is not that my English is lacking (just ask when I didn´t make myself clear), but mainly that I thought that I hadn´t much to offer to you.

That said, I learnt quite a lot here so it is only a polite thing to thank you for that :)


My name is Wim van Velzen (Wim is short for Willem, the Dutch equivalent for William). I am 36 years old, work as a teacher and a part time photographer. I live in the Netherlands with my wife and two sons.

After years of having fish tanks as a kid, I started my first paludarium in 1999, building a larger one a year or so later.
We moved to our present home in 2004 and there I built the paludarium I present here.

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#2 ·
Some technical drawings of the design:

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The land part (mainly peat and stones) rests on a acrylic plate in which I drilled small holes for drainage. Under the land part there is a water reservoir from which the aquarium filter pomps water, which gets back to the aquarium part with a small waterfall.

Lighting is now by two 80W T5 and 4 36W PL (all European 220V electrics).
 
#7 ·
hi Mark, thanks! The snow is falling right now, so I can do with some greens and warmth indeed. :)

I built this in a few weeks, but the thought process was of course a lot longer. Back in 2005 I had no digital camera and made just a few pictures. So I cannot recreate a construction journal or something.

One thing though about the cork - I started with coco fiber, but it got waterlogged and grown over and it collapsed within a year. The cork is in a way quite nice, but I couldn´t fit as good as I liked, because the animals stayed within during most of the operation.
 
#4 ·
I have had Mantella expectata and M. crocea for over ten years now, but only a few remain now (I bought them as adults). Lovely aninmals though.
The reason I put two simular species in this one tank, was that the dealer was in financial trouble and wanted to get rid of these guys.

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Less of success where the Emoya lizards I had. After a year or so they just died. :(

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#5 ·
Then there are some fishes (Hemigrammus erythrozonus , Amphiosemion austrilis, japonica shrimps)

And of course a lot of plants...

Echninodorus sp.
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Anubias sp.
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and the usual Orchids, ferns and Bromelias (esp Tillandsias)
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