# setting up 1st Tropheus tank



## Marowana (Jul 28, 2009)

I recently bought a group of red rainbows from my friend. after selling off some fish and shuffling some fish around i freed up my 120 for these tropheus.

I have a few questions 

Background-- some recommend black, some recommend blue. what colour do you use for your RR? some pics will be great!!!

Sand-- I am planning to put pool filter sand in the tank. to avoid filter damage, how many inches should i keep the intake from the sand? 

Soft water-- am i going to run into problems with soft water? all the water inside the house runs thru the water softener first.


Thx


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

I would go with black for the background makes the color of the fish stand out more most of my tanks have black backgrounds. You have to be careful when using sand it can scratch the glass when you are cleaning and everything shows up on it. If your intake is about half way up you should be ok just remember to shut off your filter when cleaning the tank. I have water though a softner and all my fish are fine with it.


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## Marowana (Jul 28, 2009)

thanks Pat, most of my tanks are black too.

im having second thoughts about using sand. because it seems like alot of work, would trophs thrive in a bare/tile bottom tank? i hate vaccuming gravel.


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

I think they would be fine if you want barebottom you could paint the bottom black I would love to do that on m y 100 but I dont have anywhere to put the fish lol. You could also go with tiles.


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## Darkside (Sep 14, 2009)

What location are your RRs from? I have a group of 20 collected at Kambwimba in a 75 gallon. I'm currently using a flat black background which seems to work ok, but I suspect that it mutes the blues coming through the dorsal fin. If you have a group from Kasanga I'd go with a blue background, it'll show off their colour better.

I'm using aragonite sand as a substrate. Its easy to clean and if you angle your filtration properly your filters will do most of the work. I siphon around the rocks every now and again, but its usually pretty clean and I have 30 fish in this tank.

As far as soft water goes, my place also has the softener hooked right into the incoming water (who does that?) but there will be a bypass. When I do a WC I hit the bypass and fill the aquarium directly from the tap with cold non-softened water mixed with a bit of hot softened water directly from the water heater. Hasn't been a problem for me so far as my fish are breeding non-stop and are looking pretty good. I'll post some pictures of my current setup as a reference if you'd like.

One other issue I'd like to address is that your trophs will only look there best under appropriate lighting. The brighter the light the better they look. I used to have my colony under a single 4' t10, and they looked pretty much brown, but I've added the fixture from my old planted setup and they now look fantastic!

GL with your trophs!


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## Marowana (Jul 28, 2009)

Darkside said:


> What location are your RRs from? I have a group of 20 collected at Kambwimba in a 75 gallon. I'm currently using a flat black background which seems to work ok, but I suspect that it mutes the blues coming through the dorsal fin. If you have a group from Kasanga I'd go with a blue background, it'll show off their colour better.
> 
> I'm using aragonite sand as a substrate. Its easy to clean and if you angle your filtration properly your filters will do most of the work. I siphon around the rocks every now and again, but its usually pretty clean and I have 30 fish in this tank.
> 
> ...


I am collecting my Kasangas from Richmondhill!! .... they are not wild caught, and i have no idea where parents are from.

how much did it cost to fill 75g with aragonite? i heard that is stuff is great. it is suppose to be a good buffer plus algae dont grow on it. is that true?

please post up some pics



pat3612 said:


> I think they would be fine if you want barebottom you could paint the bottom black I would love to do that on m y 100 but I dont have anywhere to put the fish lol. You could also go with tiles.


i might just go with tiles for now, since it is already in there. I'm dying to bring these fishes home.

I'm still torn on background colour, it seems like it is 50-50 everywhere i ask. please post some pics. Thanks for everyone help


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## Darkside (Sep 14, 2009)

Marowana said:


> I am collecting my Kasangas from Richmondhill!! .... they are not wild caught, and i have no idea where parents are from.
> 
> how much did it cost to fill 75g with aragonite? i heard that is stuff is great. it is suppose to be a good buffer plus algae dont grow on it. is that true?
> 
> ...


Aragonite isn't that expensive, it cost me $40 to fill my 75 and I have more to spare. Considering the soft water and the expensive fish its probably worth it. The collection point for your fish is Kasanga, there are 3 collection points for what are considered RRs Kasanga, Kantalamba and Kambwimba. The blue background will show your fish better, but I find the black background my aesthetically pleasing.

I'll go downstairs and get some images for you.


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## Marowana (Jul 28, 2009)

wow, $40 is not bad at all, i thought aragonite would be $100+ for a 75g. 

i always thought Kasanga is just a trade name, i had no idea that the name is related to the collection point. learned something new, thanks


still waiting for pics......


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Water that has gone through a softener isn't really softer. It has less calcium but that has been replaced with sodium. The TDS may in fact be higher than the unsoftened water. You could use a bag of blasting sand either black or silica for around $10 or less. 
If you aren't sure of the background, try a black garbage bag to see how you like it. Once you paint a tank you have only one front, instead of the two it came with.


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## Marowana (Jul 28, 2009)

thanks for everyone's help.

but 3 days ago, when i couldnt fight the itch anymore, i brought the colony home. without adding any background or any kind of sand. i just didnt want to empty my cycled tank to stick on a background... 

luckly i left the tiles on the bottom, cuz when i droped a rock in my 80% filled tank the tiled cracked but not the bottom of my tank.  (avoided a hobby ending experiece)

Today i see them breeding. its only been 3 days!!!
i saw the craziest thing just now, a female drop 2 eggs, another female swopped in stole an egg and then went to the male to get it fertilized. now it is holding someone baby. is this normal???


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## adrenaline (Jan 17, 2011)

Aroganite is great! I have it in all my cichlid tanks. great buffer for KH and PH. makes water changes a breeze, and keeps everything pretty stable. you can rinse it after you get it and add it in little by little if you want to add it. the crushed arogonite isn't dusty once washed. and it's easy to vacuum.

And it looks great as well. shows off the colours on Tropheus. I had it with My Red moliros, maswas and Muragos.


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## CanadaPleco (Sep 7, 2009)

Every water softener I have ever seen has shut off switch on it.

Nice pickup on the trophs, saw them before and they are nice!


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## bob123 (Dec 31, 2009)

Hello; Our fish club just had a speaker on Tropheus cichlids if you are interested in an article on them visit londonaquriasociety.com and click on newsletter enjoy.


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