A milestone reached: ARTIS Aquarium is nearing completion

For over 45 years, the Oss branch of Hellebrekers Water & Leisuretechniek has been working for ARTIS. "As a technical service provider, we know all the ins and outs of the animal enclosures with water in Amsterdam," says Marty van den Heuvel, contract manager at Hellebrekers. "So it's no surprise that we also got to use our expertise in the restoration of the Aquarium." Van den Heuvel has been working with ARTIS since 2017 on the new water treatment plant for the Aquarium.

A special moment

After years of designing, calculating, meeting, fitting, measuring and assembling, the time has come: the ARTIS Aquarium's impressive water treatment plants are going into operation. Right now, the six systems for fresh and salt water are being started up one by one. The show tanks and overflow buffers in the catacombs are slowly being filled with water. In the coming months, the show tanks will receive their new inhabitants: a new population of fresh and saltwater fish, corals, amphibians and echinoderms. Van den Heuvel: "Nothing about the water treatment systems is standard. Everything is specially designed for the well-being of the different species of fish in the monumental building. Every pipe is custom-made."

Meanwhile, the circulation pumps are running, the fleece filters and sieve bends are doing their job, and the protein skimmers, UV units and sensors are also functioning. Most of the plant components are located in the Aquarium's historic catacombs, where the water tanks for the show tanks are installed. Purified water is pumped up to the show tanks, which the public can admire on the first floor. Then the water flows back down past all the custom-designed components under free fall, for another round of purification.

To be continued

"It's fantastic to see how everything we came up with together is now becoming reality - and working exactly as we envisioned," said a proud Van den Heuvel. "Because of our broad experience in the design and realization of water-side installations in zoos, we know what we have to take into account and what is specifically needed for the animals in the aquariums. But to renew the complete water system of a national monument in order to make it accessible to the general public for the future - that is surely a unique assignment." 

With the commissioning of the water treatment systems, Hellebrekers's work is by no means complete. In the coming months, the company will continue to closely monitor the technical installations. To be continued, then.