Miracles 600 Build Thread - Angels & Acros

[lubeck]

Just upgraded my rodi with a 3 stage DI. Hoping for some prolonged results as I was burning through 2 cartridges every 30 days.

 

[hatfielj]

Beautiful tank! I’m in the very beginning stages of planning a build and I’m thinking of going with the exact same dimensions as you. Wont be a peninsula though.
Any regrets with the 30” height?
Also, are you still really happy Miracles?

 

[djkms]

Beautiful tank! I’m in the very beginning stages of planning a build and I’m thinking of going with the exact same dimensions as you. Wont be a peninsula though.
Any regrets with the 30” height?
Also, are you still really happy Miracles?

Thanks. No issues with the height but I'm tall so I have a good reach. Super happy with Miracles and I wouldn't hesitate buying from them again.

 

[keithw283]

first off. Awesome tank! Sorry if I missed it but how did you mount the blades? I have a 96x24” with 4 xr30s and was considering the 4 blades but was trying to find a good way to mount them

 

[djkms]

Thanks! I use the 3dreefing AI blade mounts:
https://3dreefing.com/products/radion-ai-blade-mount

Looks like they have a new version out which look awesome!

 

[keithw283]

Darn, I’ll have to come up with something else. I used 80/20 for the lights

 

[djkms]

Emperor is morphing into his adult colors. Pretty cool to watch.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Emperor is morphing into his adult colors. Pretty cool to watch.

Incredible looking photo!

 

[djkms]

2 Year anniversay video. Enjoy!

 

[lubeck]

Tank looks amazing love your aquascape.

 

[djkms]

Tank looks amazing love your aquascape.

Thanks, I appreciate that. Its actually the one part of the system I am not thrilled with. I think the main viewing side (the beginning of the video) is pretty nice but the other side (end of the video) is not that good. The challenge with the aquascape was to hide the closed loop returns. I basically had to build towers around them to hide the returns in the middle of the tank. Its the trade off I guess, not optimal aquascape in order to not have pumps on the front and side walls.

 

[Patx]

Impressive !

imagine two more years!

 

[djkms]

Impressive !

imagine two more years!

Yeah for sure. I have bought a few coral this last year that haven't grown much but have been building their base. I am looking forward to them growing out over the next few months, hopefully. Its definitely a challenge having a tank full of nippers and growing coral. PE is non existent and growth is slow for most corals.

 

[djkms]

Looking forward into the next year:

Attached is my most recent ICP-MS. Lithium is climbing higher and higher. Its been roughly hovering in the low 200's and is now over 500. I was using BRS calcium chloride but recently switched to Earthborn Elements which has been discovered to be high in lithium. I switched to Captiv8 calcium chloride hoping to get my lithium lower but its still high. I messaged Chris at Captiv8 and he couldn't guarantee me that his calcium was lower in lithium so I am going back to BRS calcium chloride as I bought 2 buckets for 35% off during their Black Friday sale. From my research here lithium doesn't have any known bad effects but I prefer to keep it lower if I am able.

I am also getting elevated nickel and not sure where it is coming from. I checked all my pumps and I am not seeing rust or anything. The only thing I can think of is maybe there is nickel in the blister packs from my food cubes and the backing of one of the blister packs got into the water? I had a MetaSorb pouch that I put in the water for a week but the nickel still climbed a bit so I would guess the pouch I have is exhausted so I am getting the high capacity Metasorb cartridge to remove the nickel. I plan on running this for a week and hopefully whatever is leaching it into the system is done.

I am going to send in a Aquabiomics Microbiome (Bacterial Profile) Test in the next couple of months. I did start out with all dry rock and have dosed various different bacteria's in a bottle along with LifeSource mud. Curious to see how diverse my biome is.

I am also going to send out a Oceamo Organo-Ms test to see if anything pops up there.

I do plan on continuing Captiv8 dosing.

I have been changing 10,000ml (roughly 2.6 gallons) per day water change. I basically go through a bag of salt every 2 months. I have increased my water change to 20,000ml per day. My DOC (SAC254) has been consistently high lately and I think larger water changes will help lower it. I have also been using CAC (catalytic activated carbon) to help try to keep DOC down but I do feed a ton and have a lot of fish.

Hopefully these changes will spur on tons of growth this next year!

 

[Baby Damsel 219]

Tank made it home last night.



We had 7 guys plus my wife to help bring it in and it took every last bit of us to do it.. I rented a 1000lb hydraulic table from our LFS and we popped the seal on the table as soon as the full weight of the tank went onto it. We actually planned ahead for that to happen so we had 4 on each side to help guide the tank down when it happened. Wish I had more pictures/video of the process but getting the tank in was top priority.

That's me on the top left, David bottom left, Jon right, my wife trying not to freak out and my daughter.

Today we are going to get the rockwork in and hopefully plumb the closed loop. I am going to do the aquascape in the rule of 3rd's which is why I have tape around it.

Sump and dosing/ATO container

always fun when the whole family gets involved, nut about the recipes, but the fun it self of having reef tank

 

[lubeck]

Thanks, I appreciate that. It’s actually the one part of the system I am not thrilled with. I think the main viewing side (the beginning of the video) is pretty nice but the other side (end of the video) is not that good. The challenge with the aquascape was to hide the closed loop returns. I basically had to build towers around them to hide the returns in the middle of the tank. It’s the trade off I guess, not optimal aquascape in order to not have pumps on the front and side walls.

Are you talking about the softie section that sits lower in the tank? Once those grow out fully it will be a nice garden. As long as your angels don’t eat them first.

I really enjoy all the depth, structures and caves it looks like the fish have a ton of options to hide and swim through.

 

[djkms]

Are you talking about the softie section that sits lower in the tank? Once those grow out fully it will be a nice garden. As long as your angels don’t eat them first.

I really enjoy all the depth, structures and caves it looks like the fish have a ton of options to hide and swim through.

No, I actually really like my Euphyllia garden at the front of my tank. Nothing nips at those thankfully.

I was more referring to the 8ft long side closest to my kitchen wall (starting at the 2:55 mark in the video). I did go with a negative space aquascape as best as I could and to your point included a lot of caves and pass throughs. I am just not super excited with how that side of the tank turned out but it is what it is. The rock is mortared together so there is not much I can do to fix it now.

 

[lubeck]

No, I actually really like my Euphyllia garden at the front of my tank. Nothing nips at those thankfully.

I was more referring to the 8ft long side closest to my kitchen wall (starting at the 2:55 mark in the video). I did go with a negative space aquascape as best as I could and to your point included a lot of caves and pass throughs. I am just not super excited with how that side of the tank turned out but it is what it is. The rock is mortared together so there is not much I can do to fix it now.

Gotcha Once those frags grow out all you will see is coral. Is the Achilles the boss or the queen?

 

[djkms]

Gotcha Once those frags grow out all you will see is coral. Is the Achilles the boss or the queen?

Actually neither. Both of them are pretty docile. I have never seen the Achilles show any aggression towards any fish and rarely does the Queen show any. I would say the Asfur Angel is the boss of the tank. The flame angel is a punk as well. The Naso is the referee. If she see's fish fighting she jumps in the middle to break it up

 

[Siasl]

What a beautiful build that I found as I was researching the next tank. :). I hope you don’t mind being an inspiration. Had two design / technical questions on the closed loop bottom hole placements. If you did it over, would they be in the same place? Specifically, I have a 250G custom nine year old Elos peninsula tank now that seems to have endless flow stagnation problems at the end of tank. I have long debated of having two end of tank symmetrical closed loop bulkheads on each side to alternate flow (i.e. generating a purposeful gyre, maybe timed with a MP60 or such). Is the placement working for you? Keeping detritus out of the end of the tank? Thanks for your thoughts! (Also, Miracles was high on consideration list - happy with it?).