# 75G Tropheus Setup



## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

Hi everyone!

Thought I'd share the progress I've made on my newly aquired 75 gallon Oceanic drilled tank. I bought it off a guy on Craigslist up here with a TON of other tanks and equipment for $500. I sold all the rest of the stuff for $375 and only kept this 75G so it ended up costing me $125! Not too shabby for up here. :bigsmile:

The tank was EXTREMELY dirty since it was in storage for quite a while, and the guy didn't clean it very often. I soaked the glass in vinegar and took a razor blade to it to get all the crud off. After the tank was cleaned I found that the front glass was a little scratched, but still I think it had potential!

Here's a shot of the tank as I got it, after the initial cleaning..









After a little more cleaning and a few coats of paint... voila!









I painted the inside of the stand in a coat of white mildew resistant paint as well to help brighten it up and to help seal it.









Wired up the tank with a little flourescent light and a switch and another switch for turning the sump pump on/off. Also mounted a powerbar to plug the rest of the equipment into.









Next up was deciding what to do about keeping this thing quiet. It came with a perforated drainpipe with a sponge prefilter that fit over top of it. I could only imagine how loud that must have been and since this tank is going into our TV room I wanted it to be as quiet as possible. So I built a durso drainpipe for the overflow and gave it a quick coat of black paint too. Had a really hard time getting the calcium deposit off the glass in that overflow..









When I was down in Vancouver over Easter I stopped in at J&L and picked up a ton of stuff! For filtration I went with the Aqueon Proflex 3 in wet/dry configuration. I was thinking about just building my own sump to save money but decided against it since this was my first tank with a sump and wanted to get a little more familiar with the setup & operation of them. The pump is a Quiet One 3000.









For lighting I also kinda went crazy and picked up two TMC AquaRay GroBeam 500 LED lighting. 24W of lighting goodness! These lights are VERY bright and much better than the Marineland DoubleBrights I had before. I actually sold the DoubleBrights to get these instead.









Another shot of the lights..









This is the lighting controller I picked up for the GroBeam 500's. It has a on/off timer and dimming feature to simulate sunrise/sunset. I have it set to dim down to 1% power to cast an eery moonlight glow on the tank at night. Looks awesome! The big rock in the tank is the only thing that you can see as the light reflects off of it a little bit.









And here was the first initial aquascape I tried. I used PFS as the substrate and some big old rocks I found in my backyard. I also threw some Java Fern in there and some other kind of plant I got off of Katie from BCA here and I cant remember the name of it. Hydor Koralia 750 in there for circulation as well.









This is how it sits now. I added some Jungle Val and rearranged a few of the rocks to better suit the flow. I also hid the heater in the overflow.


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

I cycled the tank with Seachem stability and some PFS and filter media from a 10G I tore down. I've also stuck some baby convicts in there to help cycle. It's now ready zero for ammonia and nitrites so I'm ready to roll!

I finally ordered the Tropheus from Spencer Jack last night. I'm getting 25 Chimba Red!:bigsmile: The juveniles won't be colored yet of course but if they look anything close to how this guy looks when they grow up I'll be extremely happy! 









They are coming in tomorrow morning at 11am and I can't wait! I'll be sure to post more pics when I get them.


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## joker1535 (May 23, 2010)

I've got the exact same tropheus. When they hit 1.5 inches they get really pretty. Nice setup bud.


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

wow it looks great! I've never done a sump system before... i just thought that was for strickly marine set-ups, but i don't see any reason why you couldn't use it on fresh water...kinda like a really big canister filter i suppose. 

Anyway great work on the stand and the aquascape... keep the pictures coming when you get it fully populated!


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## EVANDU (Dec 30, 2010)

is it too small for tropheus. cause my biggest ikola killed another two male tropheus. and now only 4 bigger females, and 4 small trohpeus. my tanks is 65G. i placed a lot of hiding place, but it doesnet work very well for them.


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## traco (Apr 22, 2010)

EVANDU said:


> is it too small for tropheus. cause my biggest ikola killed another two male tropheus. and now only 4 bigger females, and 4 small trohpeus. my tanks is 65G. i placed a lot of hiding place, but it doesnet work very well for them.


Would be better if you started your own thread, Evandu. Would get a better response I think?


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Setup looks really nice! Be sure to post pics of your new trophs.


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

joker1535 said:


> I've got the exact same tropheus. When they hit 1.5 inches they get really pretty. Nice setup bud.


Thanks!



monkE said:


> wow it looks great! I've never done a sump system before... i just thought that was for strickly marine set-ups, but i don't see any reason why you couldn't use it on fresh water...kinda like a really big canister filter i suppose.
> 
> Anyway great work on the stand and the aquascape... keep the pictures coming when you get it fully populated!


This is my first sump and honestly, I don't think I'd ever do any other way now on a tank this size or bigger. Maintenance on the sump is EASY.



EVANDU said:


> is it too small for tropheus. cause my biggest ikola killed another two male tropheus. and now only 4 bigger females, and 4 small trohpeus. my tanks is 65G. i placed a lot of hiding place, but it doesnet work very well for them.


It's fine for a juvenile colony now, and should be fine for an adult colony as I thin out the colony a little. I may have to remove some males depending on the ratio I end up with and aggression levels. I've read that 75G should be minimum for Trophs.



hp10BII said:


> Setup looks really nice! Be sure to post pics of your new trophs.


Will do!


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

Finally! The stars of the tank have arrived. 25 Tropheus sp. Red "Chimba".










Nicely packed. Double bagged, bubble-wrap inside a styrofoam box inside a cardboard box. No DOA fish!









They are around 1 1/2" - 2" as juvenilles right now and should grow anywhere to 4 - 6" when adults. They should start coloring up really nicely in the next few months as they grow.

































This guy is already starting to get quite a bit of red.

























I had the lights off on the tank for the first 24 hours, no food either. Once I turned the lights on they looked awesome and had ZERO casualties. I had a ton of algae on the big rock and they pretty much had it cleaned up the next day. They are all eating like pigs already.


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Christmas in May!

Very nice looking fish, it'll be fun watching the colony establish itself and colour up as they grow older.

Congrats!


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

EVANDU said:


> is it too small for tropheus. cause my biggest ikola killed another two male tropheus. and now only 4 bigger females, and 4 small trohpeus. my tanks is 65G. i placed a lot of hiding place, but it doesnet work very well for them.


IMO, Rayne has a good setup for his trophs, 75g is fine for a colony of juvies. He's starting with a good number of juveniles to spread the aggression amongst many fish. As his fish gets older, there's enough fish to play around with the m/f ratios.

Apologies to Rayne for threadjacking, it sounds like that you didn't pick up an established colony of trophs - did you add adult trophs from different sources? Maybe not enough fish to spread aggression levels?


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## EVANDU (Dec 30, 2010)

hp10BII said:


> IMO, Rayne has a good setup for his trophs, 75g is fine for a colony of juvies. He's starting with a good number of juveniles to spread the aggression amongst many fish. As his fish gets older, there's enough fish to play around with the m/f ratios.
> 
> Apologies to Rayne for threadjacking, it sounds like that you didn't pick up an established colony of trophs - did you add adult trophs from different sources? Maybe not enough fish to spread aggression levels?


Thanks hp10BI, yeah i added adult trophs from different sources, which are F1, i want more, but the guy would let them go, you know they are just too hot not to burn out. 
adults 3 F1 ikola , 3 dubosis, 1 brichardi "katonga" 
a little bit small, but starting show color, 3 Ikola.
and 65G RedSea tank

give me some advise, what should i improve. 
thanks a lot.
Great day

Evan


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

EVANDU said:


> Thanks hp10BI, yeah i added adult trophs from different sources, which are F1, i want more, but the guy would let them go, you know they are just too hot not to burn out.
> adults 3 F1 ikola , 3 dubosis, 1 brichardi "katonga"
> a little bit small, but starting show color, 3 Ikola.
> and 65G RedSea tank
> ...


Still better to start your own thread on this - sorry Rayne!

Just my opinion, I'm still learning about Trophs. A 4' tank is small for all your different variants of Trophs. For a 4' tank, I would have stuck with 1 variant with enough numbers of juveniles to spread aggression levels and they can establish their own heirarchy. For now, I'd choose 1 variant and buy more numbers to establish a larger colony. Perhaps 12 to 15.

I don't know what your aquascaping is like, but if you have 1 big pile of rocks, your dominant Ikola could be claiming the entire pile for himself and picking off the smaller ones. Maybe 2 separate smaller piles or even no rocks - no rocks, nothing to claim territory wise, so maybe less aggression. Just suggestions, fish have different personalities so what works for some tanks may not work for others.


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

hp10BII said:


> Still better to start your own thread on this - sorry Rayne!


Quite alright!


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## Lan (Apr 5, 2011)

Very nice looking setup, Rayne. Please post more pics as they get older


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

Will do! They are already starting to color up quite a bit, especially one or two who I imagine are going to be the alpha males. Fattening up already too!


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## EVANDU (Dec 30, 2010)

well done, want see more pic


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## Nanokid (May 18, 2010)

hey there

i don't think a 75 gallon will be big enough long tern. it will be fine while they are small, but when they hit maturity i would recommend a bigger tank. 

its a gourgeus set up. i have gone many ways myself, and i too love the sump for my tangs. if you run into problems with the tropheus, there are many gorgeous tanganyikans that would love to call that tank home!


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

Hi Nanokid,

It was never my intention to keep them in this tank long-term. I fully intend to upgrade them to a MUCH bigger tank in the next year or two when we are able to move to a new house. I agree that they'll be fine as juveniles for now and for the time being I'm going to over-filter the crap out of this tank! I'm thinking about added a canister filter to help with mechanical filtration and increase flow-rate in the tank.

I am constantly surprised at just how FAST these fish can swim... with such little effort. That just reinforces the fact they'll need more room as they grow to really thrive.


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## Lan (Apr 5, 2011)

Is that the kind of fish they keep in New Zealand?


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

It's been about 10 months since I set up the tank and my Troph's are doing great. They've grown to about 2.5" to 3" now and are eating liking pigs still. Sorry for the poor quality of some of these pics.. these fish dont stay still

Full tank shot.









I added an Eheim 2080 for some extra mechanical filtration as these guys are pretty messy and the detridus wasn't getting up into the overflow very well. The 2080 intake isnt that strong and I'm not overly impressed with it for mechanical but it's certainly not hurting. Also added a Neptune Apex controller!









On to the Trophs


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## Vman (Jan 20, 2011)

Good looking Trophs.Where are they from?Mine keep breeding every couple of months. They are hybrids and some of them are very interesting.


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## Rayne (Jul 12, 2010)

Vman said:


> Good looking Trophs.Where are they from?Mine keep breeding every couple of months. They are hybrids and some of them are very interesting.


Thanks! I got them from Spencer Jack


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

Missed your update. Trophs are looking really good, colouring up nicely. Nice pics, whenever my trophs see me coming with a camera, they clamp their fins.

Thx for the pics.


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