My New Setup

[fishy408]

Hi Guys,

I've been doing a lot of reading over the past month on how to setup an African Cichlid Tank. To be honest, for a person like me who has very little experience, it is quite confusing. I see myself as a quick learner, but experience plays an important key to a successful setup. 10 years ago I had a Malawi Cichlid Tank. The only thing I did was put about 15 fishes in there and did about a 30% water change monthly. I never tested the water or anything else. I guess I was lucky, and really didn't lose any fish. Now I am a little older, and would like to do things the right way with advice from the experts. While my tank is cycling, I like to list what I have and some of my plans for critique.

The Setup:
88 Gallon/with 29 gallon Sump.
Overflow --> Diffuser /with emergency Pipe --> water pipes down down into 2 Liter of Matrix --> going to a Pair of Filter Socks --> 
next it goes through my main Sump Area with 4 Liters of Pond Matrix/ Some Carbon Media in Bags/ and return pump (Tunze Recirculation Pump Silence 1073.060 at 1321 GPH) back to the main tank. My tank is completely silent except for the Tunze, it's louder then I expected.
1x Power Head with Power Backup.
Heater: I'm still looking into which one to get.
Am I missing anything in the sump?

Inside the Tank:
60 lbs of Caribsea Black Sand Substrate (I've been told that Black Sand will take away from the color of the Tropheus) 
50 lbs of Marco Rocks.

Tap Water Test
PH     PH  High     Ammonia     Nitrite     Nitrate

7.6     8.4            0.25            0           0


I realize there is something called GH/KH, which I will need to get a test kit for.

The Chemicals: 
Sea Chem Prime - I would be using this every Time I would do a water change.
Sea Chem Purigen - I would use this for water clarity and minimize nitrate once Nitrogen Cycle is complete.
What am I missing?
Epsom Salt?
Salt Water Buffer?
What else?

Medication On hand
Epsom Salt?
Metro (metronidazole) Powder? What brand do you recommend?
Clout?
I have read the "Mastiffman Bloat" which is very helpful.. thanks
I feel that there are a lot of things that I should have in hand, please let me know what I am missing.

Cichlid Food:
Currently I'm using Northfin Veggie 2mm. I do realize now that the pellets are two big :-(. Any recommendation would be great.
I did read about Dainichi, but there are just so many kinds. Do you use one kind of food or mix it up. I also have an Eheim Auto fish feeder and wonder what your thoughts are on that.

The most important thing for Last, The Tropheus.
I currently have 7 fishes in my 88 gallon tank during cycling. Probably not the best idea, but unfortunately that's what it is.
2 guppies, 2 electric yellow, 2 Dubs, 1 catfish. (all smaller than 2 inches).

Colony vs Display:
For a Display Tank: I was thinking about 4-5 different Variants of Tropheus for approximately 20 trophs. Would this work?

Colony: I'm not a breeder or have any intentions of being one. I wonder if a colony's behavior is so different that it demands that I have one? 

I would return the guppies and electric yellows to the LFS if needed.

Thanks for you help!

-Michael





 

[...]

G'day Michael.

Sounds like you have done your homework and are diligently preparing for an awesome troph set up.

Sump set up sounds spot on. There is no absolutely right way. One suggestion could be to run the water thru the filter socks 1st to prevent solid waste clogging your stage 1 matrix. Otherwise everything sound's good. You can house your heater in the return pump stage of the sump. For an 88 gal you'll want a 200W heater. Depending on your budget there are many available brands to suit.

Your substrate is perfect and will buffer your water nicely so no need to use buffers. Epsom salt at 1tbsp/10g initially and with water changes will harden your Tap water sufficiently for your troph group. Prime is great. I use it also and have found that seachem Cichlid Lake salt helps bring out their best color.

My tank is for display purposes as I have only 1 tank. It's a 125gal. I currently have 8 dubs, 20 mpulungu, 3 Blue Dolphins and 5 mdoka white lips. It's an awesome display. In Australia b4 we moved here I had a 110gal with dubs, ikola, moliro, bembas and simmochromis coexisting.

Having metro & kanaplex (I use seacbem brand) on hand is wise as early detection and treatment is key if Troph's do get sick. I have had to treat my fish at 3 different times in 7 years.

A 50% water change weekly, regular gravel vacuuming and sparingly feeding your trophs will help water quality and fish health. Rinse your filter socks in tank water every 2-4 weeks during water changes.

Troph's will eat everything you put in there to their own detriment. So be a good troph daddy and resist over feeding the little beggers 😃 I feed omega one sinking super kelp pellets and dianichi veggie deluxe. 2-3 times daily in an amount they consume in <2 minutes. The dianichi has a red moliro on the packet and the one that has the red rainbow is also a great troph food.

I wouldn't worry about testing gh/kh. Once you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and nitrates present you have both nitrosoma and nitrobactor colonies of beneficial bacteria present and you can then add in your trophs.

With a good water change routine you could go up to 30 trophs. Andrew (mastiffman), our site founder, has a great stocklist of f1 trophs available and is currently have a sale. Dubs, ikola, bulu point, mpulungu, a brchardi variant and some Petro's and juli' s as well, with red rainbows to come soon. He ships nationwide and his fish quality and shipping is exemplary. I have sourced all my fish from him and am very happy with what he supplied.

Please keep us posted. Let us know if you have more questions. I am sure others will add in to you thread as well. I certainly don't know it all but have successfully kept Troph's for over 7 years now. I love em and you will too. Post up some pics when you can mate.

All the best. Danny 🤓

[bobbybats2]

Danny pretty much said it all . I do have to caution you before you get started with tropheus . They are a very energetic and a fun fish to have , the warning that I have for you is that this fish is very addicting And before long you will be looking for more tanks and varieties of tropheus .
Don't say I didn't warn you . Welcome to the madness of keeping tropheus , you will love them

[riftwater]

1. Do NOT overfeed the Tropheus
2. Do NOT overfeed the Tropheus
3. Get high quality food (I prefer Dainchi but there are a few)

Danny covered it all, I do think eheim makes a really nice heater though.

[fishy408]

“One suggestion could be to run the water thru the filter socks 1st to prevent solid waste clogging your stage 1 matrix. Otherwise everything sound's good. You can house your heater in the return pump stage of the sump. For an 88 gal you'll want a 200W heater.”

I like the idea of moving the first set of Matrix. Initially I was trying to save sump space by stuffing the 2L of Matrix in an area where the overflow dumps off.

200W Heater – Sounds good – I’ll add that to my shopping list.


“Epsom salt at 1tbsp/10g initially and with water changes will harden your Tap water sufficiently for your troph group. Prime is great. I use it also and have found that seachem Cichlid Lake salt helps bring out their best color”

Awesome advice – I’ll buy some Epsom Salt and add according to water changes and Seachem Cichlid Salt for color.


“Having metro & kanaplex (I use seacbem brand) on hand is wise as early detection and treatment is key if Troph's do get sick. I have had to treat my fish at 3 different times in 7 years.”

Thanks for the answer. I found Seachem Metroplex and Kanaplex. Before you mentioned this I thought I had to get a medical prescription for metronidazole!



“Troph's will eat everything you put in there to their own detriment. So be a good troph daddy and resist over feeding the little beggers 😃 I feed omega one sinking super kelp pellets and dianichi veggie deluxe. 2-3 times daily in an amount they consume in <2 minutes. The dianichi has a red moliro on the packet and the one that has the red rainbow is also a great troph food.”



I like to go with what works for Troph Keepers, rather then scouring the shelves for what might be best. Dianchi Veggie Deluxe and Omega One Sinking Kelp it shall be.


“With a good water change routine you could go up to 30 trophs. Andrew (mastiffman), our site founder, has a great stocklist of f1 trophs available and is currently have a sale. Dubs, ikola, bulu point, mpulungu, a brchardi variant and some Petro's and juli' s as well, with red rainbows to come soon. He ships nationwide and his fish quality and shipping is exemplary. I have sourced all my fish from him and am very happy with what he supplied.”

I’m eyeing his stock. Dubs/Ikola/and Bulu Point. Ikolas! go Steelers!


Current Test Cycle:

                     PH High     Ammonia     Nitrite     Nitrate

Tap Water        8.4             0.25         0             0

Day 5              8                0.5          0             0

Day                 7.8             0.5          0             0

Da                  8                0.5          0.25         0

Day 10            8                0.25         0.5          0




According to this graph, with the rise of Nitrite and the lowering of ammonia I am hoping I am only a couple of weeks away from a full cycle.. crossing fingers!


Thanks guys for all the info,

-Michael

[...]

Right on Michael.

You won't be disappointed if you buy from Drew that's a promise.

Yep with the presence of nitrite now you are very close to a cycled tank ready for your trophs.

Let us know whAt you decide to stock. Whereabouts do you live?

Cheers mate!

[fishy408]

Hey Danny,

The Fishes available on the buy/sell/trade are pretty amazing compared to what I've seen. Nitrite is picking up and ammonia is dropping but no signs of Nitrates yet. I'm
expecting in the next few days or so the first signs of Nitrates - Crossing Fingers, followed by the drop of Nitrites. Once the cycle is done, I'll post in detail how I cycled
the tank from a "rookie" point of view :-).

Day 12
PH High Ammonia Nitrite Nitrate
8.0 0 2.0 0

BTW - I'm from California

Cheeers!

-Michael

[riftwater]

Just ask Drew to pack you a bag of bacteria with the fish, you'll be fine.

[...]

Ah yea John...great idea!

[fishy408]

Thanks for the advice and recommendations for Andrew. I've seen nothing but honesty and hard work ethics about Andrew digitally. He's pretty famous! I hope I'm not posting too much about my fish setup, but in a lot of ways I wanted "beginners" to read this. Sometimes in the digital marketing world, case studies have more value than a guideline. I'm hoping this real life experience will help someone in the future.

Getting back to the fish:
Contemplating a mix of Tropheus for display or a colony. I'm not a breeder - so my decision would mostly be looks and color as well as interaction. When I say interaction, I'm wondering if Tropheus display different behaviours when mixed, or are there just special behaviours that you would only see in a colony.

Updated Water Measurements:
            PH     PH High     Ammonia     Nitrite     Nitrate
Tap       7.6     8.4          .25              0             0
Day 5              8            0.5              0             0
Day6               7.8          0.5              0             0
Day8               8            0.5              0.25         0
Day 10            8             0.25            0.5          0
Day 12            8             0                2            0
Day 14            8.            0                1            5

The funny thing about water testing is the human element. I was thinking today when doing a water test, I tend to lean towards recording numbers that I expect it should be. For example, I am expecting Nitrate to show up, so the color today looks very dark yellow but not necessarily orange, but close to enough to orange that I marked it down as 5 instead of 0.

Temperature:
Not sure why I got my thermometer last, but just got it in today. Since I live in California, my home temperature is usually around 78F. Aquarium temperature seems to reflect very similar numbers 77F during mid day and 76F early morning.

Equipment:
Last pieces of "fishgear" I have ordered are coming in.
Finnex 300w titanium heater with the Finnex 300 heater controller.
Pump (wave maker) should be coming in a few days. - This was an adventure on my part. Let me say that I shop online for everything, and buying this pump was the worst experience I have had in the past 10 years. At the end of this "pump cycle", I felt like a beaten puppy and just paid about 175% of the retail price to get a working one that fits on my aquarium. Lesson Learned.

Next Steps:
Ammonia seems to have spiked and dropped and staying consistent at 0, which is lower then my tap water. Nitrite seems to be hovering around but also slowly dropping. I think I should expect it to hit 0. First signs of Nitrate today :-). I'm not sure how much longer, but I am hoping within a week or two.

thanks!

-Michael