# 150 gal Hap/Peacock Build (Pic Heavy)



## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

I picked up a 150 gal tank off craigslist that I am setting up for Haps and Peacocks. I had a bunch of pictures of it spread all over in different threads, and some of the pics dont show up anymore because I reorganized my Photobucket account, so I thought I would make a new thread with the pics and progress. I did most of the "build" over Labor Day weekend. So here goes.

Pic of the tank from craigslist.


Tank before cleaning


Tank after cleaning and doing a water test




The stand how I got it


The stand after i got done with it


The stand didnt have a bottom, so I had to put one on. I had some 3/4 inch maple left over from one of my other stand builds, so I used that. I put the bottom on the base, rather than up inside the frame so that i would have room to fit my canisters.




The tank before painting the back black


Tank after painting


Trying out some rock and plant placement (thats not the actuall light for the tank, just used the one from my other tank to get a little light)


And the finished product. Not sure if I am going to keep the rockwork the way it is, but it will work for now.




The tank didnt have any tops and I was having a hard time finding one that fit, then I found out that my 40 gal breeder top fit perfectly, so I ordered two of those and Im good to go now. I have two 36 inch BeamsWork Freshwater Bright Hi Lumen LED lights on the tank, and two Jager 200 watt heaters. The tank is cycling right now with one Odyssea CSF 700 canister filter on it, and as soon as the two sponge filters in my 40 gal breeder are populated with BB, then the established CSF 700 canister from there will be going on the new tank. That will give me just under 1500 gph turnover. For substrate I used #20 pool filter sand. I got the rocks from my local landscape supply yard, they had it labeled as Imagination Rock, whatever that is.

Now it is just the waiting game for the tank to finish cycling so I can order my fish. Hope you guys like it.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Nice job on the tank cleanup and good idea to paint the stand, it looks much better for some reason. I also like the sand and rocks. Good job on the layout.


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## SomethingIsFishy (Aug 29, 2013)

Nice tank! Will be watching this one... :thumb:


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Deeda said:


> Nice job on the tank cleanup and good idea to paint the stand, it looks much better for some reason. I also like the sand and rocks. Good job on the layout.


Thanks Deeda. I think painting the stand and changing out the handles gave it a more modern look. I spent about 4 hours trying different rock layouts before I settled on this one. Cant wait for it to finish cycling so I can order my fish. I should have my stocklist finalized in the next day or so.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

Yes, very nice. Just got a few peacocks for my 75G mbuna/peacock tank.


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

I wouldn't change the rocks much... I think it looks great.


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## SomethingIsFishy (Aug 29, 2013)

+1 I like the rockwork too!


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

Are those live plants? Why kind of light do you have on this tank?


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Yes, they are live plants. I have 2 36 inch Beamswork Freshwater Bright Hi Lumen LED lights.


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## Graffiti (Aug 17, 2013)

I was going to do the same thing and order 2 36" beamswork for my 6foot 125g do you have yours just laying on top butted up next to each other? That's what I was going to do, looks great so far.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Graffiti said:


> I was going to do the same thing and order 2 36" beamswork for my 6foot 125g do you have yours just laying on top butted up next to each other? That's what I was going to do, looks great so far.


Thanks. There is a glass brace in the middle of my tank so the inner feet on both fixtures just sit on there in the 1 inch gap between my two glass lids. There is a 2.5 inch gap between the actual bodies of the fixtures, but as you can see from the picture of the tank, there is no dark spot in the tank where the space is between the fixtures. Here is a pic of what it looks like.


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## Graffiti (Aug 17, 2013)

Sweet, thanks for the pic. I have two braces on mine but ill just lay them on top of the glass hood/cover and space them like you have. Very bright and no dead spots, I've read plenty of reviews on these before even considering purchasing them because I was hesitant on the price compared to competitors but I haven't heard a bad thing about em yet. Thanks again.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

R6RaVeN37 said:


> Yes, they are live plants. I have 2 36 inch Beamswork Freshwater Bright Hi Lumen LED lights.


I'm also looking into the Beamswork Hi Lumen lights. They seem pretty bright. What plant species do you have? Are they mainly low light plants?


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Graffiti said:


> Sweet, thanks for the pic. I have two braces on mine but ill just lay them on top of the glass hood/cover and space them like you have. Very bright and no dead spots, I've read plenty of reviews on these before even considering purchasing them because I was hesitant on the price compared to competitors but I haven't heard a bad thing about em yet. Thanks again.


No problem. Yeah, so far in my experience you cant beat these BeamsWork lights for the price.



> I'm also looking into the Beamswork Hi Lumen lights. They seem pretty bright. What plant species do you have? Are they mainly low light plants?


I have a some Anubias (cant remember which ones), Windelov Java Fern, and Amazon Sword.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

R6RaVeN37 said:


> Graffiti said:
> 
> 
> > Sweet, thanks for the pic. I have two braces on mine but ill just lay them on top of the glass hood/cover and space them like you have. Very bright and no dead spots, I've read plenty of reviews on these before even considering purchasing them because I was hesitant on the price compared to competitors but I haven't heard a bad thing about em yet. Thanks again.
> ...


That's pretty much the species I was looking to keep. I'll warn you tho, my mbuna mowed over live plant I put in my tank except for the aunbias nana.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

clhinds78 said:


> R6RaVeN37 said:
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Yeah, I had some of these same plants in my 90 gal Mbuna tank and they decimated them in short order, so now I have a HOB refugium full of these plants on that tank. Hopefully these plants will do ok in this new tank since it will be only Haps and Peacocks.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

Oh yes, i forget, you're not keeping mbuna in this tank. You should be ok then. My bad. 

Anubias is about the only plant they won't touch. I plan to add a few more to my mbuna tank soon because i hate fake plants and I think anubias look awesome sticking out of a crack int he rocks here and there.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Well, it looks like my tank is cycled :dancing: Checked my water today and 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and around 10 nitrates. I dosed with ammonia again tonight and will check everyhting again tomorrow and hopefully get the same results. If so I will be ordering my fish in the next few days. Cant wait.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

R6RaVeN37 said:


> Well, it looks like my tank is cycled :dancing: Checked my water today and 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and around 10 nitrates. I dosed with ammonia again tonight and will check everyhting again tomorrow and hopefully get the same results. If so I will be ordering my fish in the next few days. Cant wait.


 :thumb: 
Can't wait to see the pics!


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Well, first the good news. I just checked my water and.......the tank is cycled! 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 10-20 nitrates. Now the bad news. My fish order may have to wait a bit . Since I am a government employee, this whole government shutdown is affecting me. I have been told I will get my next paycheck, but anything after that is not guaranteed unless a budget is passed. So as a result I may have to forego my fish purchas for awhile :roll: . I wont get into politics, but needless to say the government is messing with my livelyhood, and now my hobby as well :x


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## Graffiti (Aug 17, 2013)

Sorry to hear that bro, I'm waiting for more funds to complete my build as well so it's a slow process but that's no good on your end. Just keep us updated and hopefully things get better financially for you. It's slow season for the kind of work I do as well so money is hard to come by and gotta keep the wallet tight. I could get carried away but debt is my enemy and I don't need anymore of that lol.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

The worst part is I have the money to order the fish, but I have to keep reminding myself that spending $300-$400 on fish right now probably is not the best idea with all the unknows. Hopefully the government pulls it head out of it's a** and gets the country back on track. Hope business picks up for you Graffiti.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Well, I finally ordered my fish today  :dancing: . They will be here Wednesday, cant wait. I ordered 6 each of Otopharynx Lithobates Yellow Blaze (Z-Rocks), Tramitichromis Intermedius, Placidochromis Milomo VC-10, and Protomelas Tangerine Tigers. I held off on the Red Top Lwandas for right now, but I still think I might get some in the future. Going to do a last dose of ammonia on the tank tonight, and then a decent size water change tomorrow night to make sure all my water parameters are good to go. I will post some pics when I get the fish.


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## ITALIAN926 (Jul 31, 2012)

Why are there holes in the front doors?


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Looking forward to seeing the new fish...


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

ITALIAN926 said:


> Why are there holes in the front doors?


I have no idea :? The stand came like that, and I havent quite figured out a good way to plug/cover them.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Iggy Newcastle said:


> Looking forward to seeing the new fish...


I will for sure post some once they get here. I will probably do a series of pics from unboxing up through actually putting them in the tank. All the fish are in the 1.5-2.5 inch range, so Im not expecting any great coloring, but who knows, some of the larger ones may be starting to color up. Guess we will just have to wait and see.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

I have a 2.5 inch peacock that has quite a bit one color and a 3 inch one that only has a little. I think it depends on the fish and on their order in the hierarchy.


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## ITALIAN926 (Jul 31, 2012)

R6RaVeN37 said:


> ITALIAN926 said:
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> 
> > Why are there holes in the front doors?
> ...


Im no carpenter, but what I would do is cover it with thin wood on the inside, then compound the hole on the outside, sand, then paint.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

ITALIAN926 said:


> R6RaVeN37 said:
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I thought about doing that, but now that I actually went back and looked at it after you brought it to my attention ( been busy with other stuff and kinda forgot about it), it is just a board tacked on to the back of the door frame. So i should be able to just remove the ones with the holes and replace it with new ones and paint them.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Fish are here! Got them all unpacked and they are all alive and look to be healthy. They are floating now. I will post some pics once they are all in the tank and settled.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

R6RaVeN37 said:


> Fish are here! Got them all unpacked and they are all alive and look to be healthy. They are floating now. I will post some pics once they are all in the tank and settled.


Nice! What species did you get? Where did you get them?


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

R6RaVeN37 said:


> Fish are here! Got them all unpacked and they are all alive and look to be healthy. They are floating now. I will post some pics once they are all in the tank and settled.


That's always a very exciting time when you first open up that box :thumb: :thumb: Look fwd to the pics.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

clhinds78 said:


> R6RaVeN37 said:
> 
> 
> > Fish are here! Got them all unpacked and they are all alive and look to be healthy. They are floating now. I will post some pics once they are all in the tank and settled.
> ...


I got 6 each of Otopharynx Lithobates Yellow Blaze, Placidochromis Milomo VC-10, Tramitichromis Intermedius, and Protomelas Tangerine Tiger. I got them from one of the site sponsors who's name starts with a D (dont want the mods getting mad at me for putting the full name  ).


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

R6RaVeN37 said:


> clhinds78 said:
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Cool!

I think you mention their full name if they area sponsor.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Here are the pics as promised. Nothing too spectacular since they are all juvies. No reall color showing yet, but they all look to be good quality and healthy. They are settling into their new home nicely. They were already sifting sand within 20 minutes of being in the tank. Enough talking, on to the pictures.

The box as I received it.


What I was greeted with after opening the box. Oddly, there was no heat pack in the box, but Im guessing since they were overnighted from Texas to California they didnt need one. The water was a decent temp (probably in the mid 70's, though I didnt actually use a thermometer to measure it), and the fish didnt seem to be bothered by it.


The fish were packaged very nicely. Double bagged with plent of air and sealed with a metal crimp on both bags. There were no leaks from the bags. Here are some pics of the fish in the bags (cant really see the fish too well).

Tangerine Tigers


Yellow Blaze Lithobates


Tramitichromis Intermedius


And the Placidochromis Milomo VC-10's


Here is a pic of the bags floating. I floated them for about 40 minutes to make sure the temps in the bags stabilized.


And now for some pics of the little guys in their new home.

Lithobates in the foreground and a Tiger in the upper left corner


My biggest Tiger, right about 2 inches


Some of the Milomo's and Intermedius




Tramitichromis Intermedius


The VC-10's in a group


The Z-Rock Lithobates. You can kind of see a little of the yellow blaze starting to show on the tops of their dorsal fins.


Like I said, nothing too stunning, but good quality looking fish. Cant wait till these guys start growing and coloring up.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Awesome. Glad it worked out for you.

I remember when you got this tank and were going to do P. williamsi north... seems like such a long time ago.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

Looking good. Give them time, they will color up. Well, at least the males will.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Iggy Newcastle said:


> Awesome. Glad it worked out for you.
> 
> I remember when you got this tank and were going to do P. williamsi north... seems like such a long time ago.


Yeah it does. I still want to get some P. Williamsi North, but Im not sure if I want to adjust my stock in the 90 gal for them, or maybe do a species only tank for them. That wil be a while in the future though. Right now I will be concentrating on this tank.



> Looking good. Give them time, they will color up. Well, at least the males will.


Thanks. Yeah, I just wish it would happen fast, lol. Oh well, thats part of the fun, watching the transformation.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

The fish seemed to be hanging out in two groups at opposite ends of the tank since I put them in, so I decided to throw a few pellets of food in there to see if that would coax them out. Wow, did they all come to life! They are all over the tank now exploring the whole thing. I fed them a little more, just like a pinch and now they are much more active. I feed NLS to my Mbuna, is that a good all around food for Haps as well? All but one of my species are carnivores.


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

> I think you mention their full name if they area sponsor.


Nope. Last year I mentioned where I got my fish from which was a site sponsor and someone came in and edited it out of my post :roll: Figure the point of that one out.

R6RaVeN37 congrats on the new fish, they are nice looking. I have a fully colored yellow blaze myself, they are a really nice looking fish that color up well.


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## ITALIAN926 (Jul 31, 2012)

Hey Jason, u may want to remove one of those photos.

LOL


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

ITALIAN926 said:


> Hey Jason, u may want to remove one of those photos.
> 
> LOL


Yea I saw that! I'm gonna send him some jehovah witness stuff!


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Lol, thanks for pointing that out. I didnt even catch it. It is taken care of now.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

NLS is a good all around food. You might want to add some frozen brine shrimp or blood worms to their diet as well. Feed that one or twice a week as a nice treat and your fish will love you!


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## jimmie (Oct 23, 2002)

Nice set up , I also have male hap/peacock tank...just start it back..I usually want for them to grow ? , but I purchase them nice size now, justbuy a few at a time...buying another peacock or hap this week, for the future if you can, you are to build you a stand about 4 ft tall, it look much better setting high, an also build a canopy on top, but other then that nice set up...congratulations


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Been a long time since I have been to the forums, so I thought I would post an update on this tank. In the first few months I lost a couple fish, one of my Tangerine Tigers, one of my Super VC-10's, and three of my Intermedius  . I think I had an outbreak of bloat. Treated with clout and all has been good since. I didn't loose any of my Z Rocks, and all the fish that are left are healthy and happy. As far as what I ended up with in terms of male/female, I am still figuring that out. It looks like I ended up with two male Z Rocks (one starting to color up good, the other showing faint blue in the face) and four females, and for sure one male VC-10 (starting to color nicely). Still waiting for any of the Tigers or Intermedius to start to color up, but I have my suspicions that I have at least one male of each (based on size). I actually had all of my female Z Rocks holding, but wasn't able to get to them before they spit in the tank, so I only ended up with 8 fry in total that I could find. Hopefully I will get some more spawns from them, and maybe from the VC-10's as well.

Haven't really changed anything with the rock layout, just added some more plants. Other than that, everyhting seems to be going pretty good with the tank.

Here are some pics of the tank, the Z Rock and VC-10 that are coloring up. Hope you like them (and excuse the crappy cell phone quality, lol).


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Well, looks like I have at least one male Intermedius, because just now during feeding I noticed one of the Intermedius not eating, and after taking a close look, it appears she is holding!


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

Looking good!

Don't worry, the fish will color up eventually. It can take a while with peacocks!


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## jimmie (Oct 23, 2002)

Yeah u will have some lost from time to time, I lost a fire as hap ahli dude so I know how u feel, and and a longtime ago not once , but twice, tank crashes, over the pass years, so sometimes [email protected] happens, hang in there


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

It was brought to my attention today that I have not updated this post in over a year (sorry, life got in the way lol). So, later today or tomorrow I will be posting updated pics of the tank and fish as well as a little info on how everything has been going with the tank/fish over the last year. Stay tuned.


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## R6RaVeN37 (Aug 10, 2012)

Ok, as promised, here is the update and pics of the tank.

I got the bloat all taken care of and haven't lost any more fish since then. So after the losses and all this time it looks like I have the following left:
3 male Z-Rocks (all showing color) and 3 females
1 male Intermedius (showing color) and 2 females
2 male VC-10's (both showing color) and 3 females
4 Tangerine Tigers. No color on any of these guys yet, but I think one is a male

Everything has been going good with the tank. I took the plants out of the tank for the simple fact that they weren't growing very well with the lighting I have. I did rearrange the rock in the tank a little, but nothing drastic. There doesn't seem to bee any aggression problems, just the normal chasing here and there. I finally did manage to catch one of my female Z-Rocks that was holding, and got six fry out of her. That was a few months back and the fry have been growing out nicely, they are all about 1-2 inches now. Haven't seen any spawns from the Intermedius or the VC-10's, but they only recently started to color up, so I am thinking it is only a matter of time before I get a spawn out of them.

On to the pictures:

A few shots of the whole tank






A couple shots from the side of the tank






One of the male VC-10's and Z-Rocks




The male Intermedius




Well, that's about it for now. Hope you guys (and gals) enjoyed the update and the pics.


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## tanker3 (May 18, 2015)

Thanks for posting more pics. The tank looks like of empty.


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