# 125G Tropheus tank



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

Some of you might know my site www.fmueller.com because of my 240G Frontosa tank. Now I have finally found the time to expand the one page I had on my 125G tropheus setup into a full blown section - including many photos, suggestions on how to built a cabinet, canopy, automatic water change system, and so on. Check it out at:

http://www.fmueller.com/home/aquaristic/125g/

Frank


----------



## Mobius1230 (Sep 22, 2008)

Oh thats nice! I like the "sunny" lighting. Have you thought about more rocks?


----------



## Afishionado (Jun 6, 2006)

Terrific stuff on your site Frank! Nice setup and fish too. I hadn't thought there was even any point to trying live plants in myTropheus tank, but you are showing me otherwise. Do you use any plant fertilizer? CO2? Or is all of that supplied by the fish in sufficient quantities...


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

Mobius1230 said:


> Oh thats nice! I like the "sunny" lighting. Have you thought about more rocks?


Thanks! At the risk of disappointing you, the lighting in the second shot is mostly an off camera flash mounted over the tank, but the tanks does get early morning sunlight, which gives ti a similar look but makes photography in the mornings impossible due to the reflections. The tropheus really seems to appreciate a lot of free swimming space, and there is a strong current in the tank, which the really enjoy darting around in. I originally didn't want to put any rocks in that tank, other than the ones necessary to weigh down the wood. The little cave on the right was created out of necessity. It really makes the whole right hand side of the tank more acceptable as a territory for the tropheus. When they were very small, they had considerable trouble swimming out there due to the strong current in that area. The cave brakes up the current somewhat, and creates calmer spots for a rest. It was initially used by weaker members of the colony to hide out for a while. Now it is used by one of the dominant males as center of his territory. It's also where he lures the females, and entices them to spawn.










Any fry seem to find plenty of hiding places in the wood, which has tunnels all throughout it like a Swiss cheese. They also find cover in the valisneria thicket on the very right, which luckily is well established by now. So no, I am not thinking about more rocks at this point.












Afishionado said:


> Terrific stuff on your site Frank! Nice setup and fish too. I hadn't thought there was even any point to trying live plants in myTropheus tank, but you are showing me otherwise. Do you use any plant fertilizer? CO2? Or is all of that supplied by the fish in sufficient quantities...


Thank you! The tropheus have certainly surprised me when it comes to plants - but mostly by grazing off all the Java fern I put in that tank! I really did not expect that. On the other hand, they don't seem to touch the red leafed _Echinodorus sp._ and the _Cryptocoryne sp._ on the left. Particularly well have done the _Valisneria sp._ and the _Anubias sp._. The valisneria put out countless new runner and off-shoots all the time, but the Tropheus seem not interested in those as food. The Anubias has come up with four flowers over the last few months, and is by far the nicest anubias plant I have ever had in any of my tanks. I think at least part of the reason it is doing so well is that the tropheus keep its leaves spotlessly clean of algae.

I don't use CO2, no fertilizers whatsoever, and a very cheap lighting solution - two T8 double strip 4' shoplights from Home Depot, leading to about 1.3wpg of 6500K light.


----------



## zugbug (Dec 12, 2005)

very nicely done. Love the website! 
How big is your colony? Also. Did you strip your females and raise the fry in a separate tank or let me fend for themselves in the main tank?


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

Many thanks! I started with 25 when they were about 1". Now there are more. How many more is anybody's guess :lol:

Catching fish from this tank is tough, since I can't easily remove the hue piece of wood, and with it in the tank fish are next to impossible to catch. Luckily fry seem to find ample hiding spaces in the wood and the plants. I won't get as many fry as if I was stripping females, but I still get plenty for my purposes!

Frank


----------



## IrkedCitizen (Apr 26, 2007)

Right on. I was a fan of your 240g write-up. I have whored out your page a few times for people to read.

My only gripe is how you setup some of the pictures. I don't like how it doesn't go to the full sized picture automatically for some. That it goes to the same sized picture and then you have to click another button to get to full size. Maybe it was easier for you to do it that way but it is kind of a PITA.

I'm glad to hear you are having success with your tropheus. Hopefully you will have success with the eretmodus. I think you should try adding another male multi. Give in to the temptation.


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

IrkedCitizen said:


> My only gripe is how you setup some of the pictures. I don't like how it doesn't go to the full sized picture automatically for some. That it goes to the same sized picture and then you have to click another button to get to full size. Maybe it was easier for you to do it that way but it is kind of a PITA.


I hear you, but I am a self-tought web designer, and I am using a free, open-source content management system to run the site (Wordpress). This makes it very easy to work on the site, and expand it to include different areas. The whole gallery thing is a free-open source plug-in for Wordpress (NextGEN Gallery).

That being said, it's highly customizable, and I admit that I always found it kind of dumb that the gallery doesn't show the full size of an image once you click on the thumbnail, but some intermediate size. I just played around with it, and I think it now shows the full size right away. You can than still click on 'full size', but you only get the image on its own screen in the top left corner instead of centered on the screen. That's kind of dumb, but I have no idea how to get rid of that. Anyhow, you should now get the full size image as soon as you click on the thumbnail, which I guess is an improvement!

Many thanks for pointing this out to me!

Frank


----------



## mstatdfield (Jan 20, 2008)

Frank,
The Tropheus tank section is a great addition to the website. Thanks so much for taking the time to put it together. I have learned a great deal from it. The tank itself is gorgeous. The 2260 must really chug. How often do you have to gravel vac this tank? If I am not mistaken you have ben able to put it off for long periods of time with your tanks with UGJs. Just curious if you are missing it on the 125g. Keep up with good work!

Marc


----------



## ancestral (Mar 10, 2009)

Very nice website Frank. Especially the 125g and 240g sections.

You just gave me lots of new ideas for my new 1000 liter (270g) tank. Thanks to you, i seem to have solved my sump and overflow box problems. My new tank has been saved from drilling.

Great work, thanks again for sharing all your stunning stuff.


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

mstatdfield said:


> How often do you have to gravel vac this tank? If I am not mistaken you have been able to put it off for long periods of time with your tanks with UGJs.


I have to say I couldn't even tell you when is the last time I have done a thorough gravel vacuuming in the 125G Tropheus tank. Some debris tends to accumulate in the open area between the big piece of wood and the little rock cave. Snails gather there and feed on it, so I occasionally take a hose and vacuum that area, but I rarely stir up the substrate. When I do, there doesn't seem to be much dirt in it. I couldn't really stir up the substrate in the areas where the plants are anyhow, because this tank has lots of plants that have a large root bed in the substrate - valisneria, echinodorus, cryptocoryne. In summary, although I like the UGJ system in my 240G, I can't say I miss it in this tank.

The main issue in the 125G tropheus tank are snails. I've got the population way down now with feeding less and putting slices of zucchini and cucumber in the tank over night, both of which are covered with snails in the morning that can be discarded together with the veggies. I've also just introduced some multies to the tank. I wasn't even thinking of that at first, but the other day I read that they might eat snails. If they do, they should be very happy about the food supply in my tanks, and my problem should be solved :wink:



ancestral said:


> Thanks to you, i seem to have solved my sump and overflow box problems. My new tank has been saved from drilling.


Hmm, my 240G is drilled, and I am not sure that I give any advice how to set up a sump system without doing that. But I am glad if you got the right ideas while browsing through my ramblings 

Many thanks for the compliments to both of you!

Frank


----------



## Louis123 (Jun 13, 2004)

Hey Mr.Mueller,

Your tank looks amazing, the only thing I might not like is your eheim diffuser, since I had trouble with tropheus not spawning well when there was alot of micro bubbles in the tank. Aside from that, really nice combination of driftwood and plants, it's stunning.

A few questions :

-Do you have any concern about the driftwood softening the water too much ?

-What are your water parameters, I supose you don't use any kind of buffer with your continuous water change system ?

-How about a C02 feeder, do you dose any C02 to your plants ?

-For the roots bed, did you use a product in particular ?

I have a 150g tropheus tank, it does not look good but it works well  I run PH close to 8.5-9.0, with very hard water. I always wandered if I was spending too much on the buffer and salt, lets admit it, it's a hassle to prepare your water !! Do you have any feedback on a tank running on tap water, as far as breeding and acclimatation goes ?

I never had any deaths in my tank running with the "lake" parameters, but I would be open to changing my system. I'll be following up on your tank, you are doing a great job :thumb:


----------



## mmd (Aug 26, 2007)

i remember when this tank was up for a vote, trophs or south american cichlids
i voted south american
based on your pictures i was wrong
looks great, inspired me to re aquascape today....


----------



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

Louis123 said:


> Your tank looks amazing, the only thing I might not like is your eheim diffuser, since I had trouble with tropheus not spawning well when there was a lot of micro bubbles in the tank. Aside from that, really nice combination of driftwood and plants, it's stunning.[/url]
> 
> Many thanks for the compliments. That's an interesting observation regarding the bubbles. These are my first and so far only tropheus, so I am far from being an expert, but I can assure you that these tropheus absolutely love the current, and don't seem to mind the bubbles in the least. That seemed to make sense to me, since AFAIK tropheus populate the surge area in the lake, ie an area that is close to the surface near the shore where sunlight easily penetrates the water leading to abundant algae growth, which of course is their food source. This area is also where huge breakers come in leading to strong current, and I imagine plenty of bubbles. I've never been to the lake myself, so this is second hand info.
> 
> ...


I haven't given up on the South Americans - they are in a 75G. I just haven't got around to complete this section of my web site. The setup is very similar to the tropheus tank though - same water change system, Eheim canister (2217) with Eheim diffusor, pool filter sand, painted background, and so on. I just redid the aquascaping in this tank two days ago since my Geophagus sp. Pindare were not breeding, and have been at breeding size for ages. Following the advice of Jeremy Basch - a man who knows his Geophagine! - I opened up the tank a little by removing lots of wood and creating a large sand area with a big flat rock in the middle. I also fed them oodles of life blackworms. Two days after making the changes, I clearly have a pair, and they are guarding that rock! I am very excited to see those fish breed, since Jeremy might be the only other person who has bred that species in the US, although they have been in the hobby in Germany for ages.

Greetings

Frank


----------



## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

I have been to your website many times. Your tanks are truly an inspiration. Thank you.


----------

