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RE: Dupla...
Greetings Mike,
Dispite the fact that Dupla are in Australia, they keep very much to themselves,
although a friend of mine knows Horst Kipper quite well and apparently the majority
of the research they are doing now is marine. Horst lives in Carnes in the Northern
part of Queensland, just off the barrier reef and has a floating laboratory that they
use. Apparently they send many marine fish to Germany for sale by Dupla there.
The fish are of a very good quality apperently. My friend keeps one of the best
aquatic plant nurserys in Aussie, in Townsville and has been visited by Horst
a number of times. Apparently, the tanks that Horst keeps are mainly marine,
but he did have plans to set up some ponds of aquatic plants aswell. I don't
know how he has gone with these. He was most disappointed with the way
that my friend grows his plants (which look absolutely fantastic), as the
methods he uses are completely organic and not really suitable for aquarium
use. Horst's recommendation, was to use chelated Fe and supply the ponds
on a daily basis and to do regular testing and keep the levels at 0.1mg/l.
My friend said that he priced what using this method would cost, and that
on the scale that he has, the price of the chemicals needed would not be
financially viable. The methods that he employs includes the use of foul
manure, laterite, trace elements and CO2 in the water. The substrate is
rather special in that it forms almost solid baked clay type bricks that
the plants sit in.
Apparently, the research that Horst did is apparently almost completely
based on his trips to Thialand, and the types of plants were almost all crypts.
My friend disagrees with the some of Dupla's research, as he has found that
there are a lot of plants that just don't grow as well when placed in these
conditions. I can agree with his findings, as some of the plants that I have
seen in the wild (which have been very lush) do not live in the sort of water
that is recommended by Dupla.
I have not seen a Dupla tank as seen in the video, but there is a shop here in
Sydney that stocks almost entirely all Dupla stuff and all the setups that he
has use Dupla equipment. The Dupla agent in Australia is based in Adelaide,
and is quite helpful, but the product itself is very expensive (as in every other
place in the world). Also not the whole range of electrical gear is available here
due to the fact that it is not approved here and costs a lot to get approved and
the importer doesn't feel that he will get a return on the approval costs in quantity
of sales.
There is a glass company here though that does cut and polish the glass that
goes into such a tank, and tanks made in this fashion do look fantastic.
Marque APD - ANGFA(NSW)
Marc,
Do you have any familiarity with the branch of Dupla located in Australia?
In speaking with John Burleson (the US Dupla importer), he told me that the
fancy aquarium featured in the Optimum Aquarium Video was currently
manufactured in Australia. I am fascinated by this system and would love
to find out more information on it. All I know it that it would cost
$20,000US to get one. That is currently out of my price range. I could
probably afford it but I would be living alone with that tank if I ever
bought such a thing. :)
Dupla refers to it as their Aquarium 2000. Have you seen it available
anywhere in your country?
My intention is to find all the info I can on it and have a local
manufacturer "Duplacate" it. :)
Take care...
Mike