Miracles Dream 600 Build Thread

[djkms]

*** Introduction ***​

Hey All,

Figured its time to get this build thread started.

So a little about me. Name is Kris (male). I have been in and out the hobby since I was 14 (45 now). I moved from Colorado to Florida in 2020 and currently live in the Tampa Bay area. When I first moved out here I was really excited to get a tank set back up and tried to find the local aquarium groups here and to my surprise I couldn't find any! I don't do social media and in Colorado our local group was on forums (MASC). No such luck here so I got on Craigslist looking for a used tank. I ended up getting a 210 gallon with tank, stand canopy and equipment. In my haste I didn't really examine the glass well and brought it home. Needless to say the glass has scratches all over it and it has been annoying me ever since. Also come to find out all the local groups here are on Facebook so alas, I am now on social media.


Well fast forward to now in 2023 and I finally have my truck paid off and its time to get my dream tank. I am also in a house that I will stay in at least until my daughters graduate and are out of the house. So I called around to all the custom tank manufacturers and got quotes.

I ended up going with Miracles Aquariums and so far I have been pleased with the process. I really also appreciated the level of customer service they have provided members here on R2R. Derek has been awesome to work with as well. He has taken my multiple phone calls and responded to multiple emails and has been keeping me in the loop during the whole process. Derek has also brainstormed ideas with me and was not afraid to give me his professional opinion on certain aspects of the build which I appreciated. Also, I found their pricing to be really competitive. They also took their annual summer vacation during this build and let me know ahead of time for the radio silence.

Here are the spec of the system:

• 96x48x30 Peninsula w/Starphire glass on 3 sides and eurobrace w/starboard bottom
• White powder coated steal stand 40" high
• 62x32x21.5 Sump

For livestock I am going Acropora, Chalices, Cyphastrea and maybe a couple other really slow growing encrusters. That's it. This will be predominantly a Acropora Tank only. I have done SPS dominant tanks in the past but they always end up as mixed reefs. Not this time. Sticking with my vision!

I am also an angelfish lover and will continue with that trend. I currently have an Emperor, Flame, and Regal which will make their way into this new system. I will also look into getting larger angels now since I will have the room. Moorish Idol is also on my radar again as well.

I have equipment that will be coming off my current 210 as this tank will be broken down and all the corals sold (I did frag some acro's & chalices to place in the new system). I am starting from scratch with rock, sand corals, etc. However most of my fish will be going into the new system.

​

The aquarium is slated to be here the first or second week of October. I already started head hunting 10-12 guys, suction cups and a hydraulic scissor lift to get this in my house. Good thing is my front door is double door and the tank is going to go straight back from the front door.


If you are interested in finding out some of my previous systems I do catalogue them on aquatic log:
https://www.aquaticlog.com/users/djkms

Here is a picture of my current 210 gallon that will be taken down once I get the 600 going:

 

[djkms]

*** Concept ***​

I knew one of the biggest challenges for this would be flow. I refuse to have pumps on the 3 viewing panes and figured I should get this drilled for closed loop.

Here are the drawings for the closed loop, 1st one is the bottom of the tank this is 4, 1" holes for the returns:

and 2, 2" drains on the back wall (although we did space out the drains lines more in the overflow:

Lastly here is a drawing of the sump. I really wanted to have a large fuge which can also act as a frag area. I had them put a rim around the fuge so I can place eggcrates in the sump. I also wanted my plumbing to have short runs so I had the return section setup as a "raceway" so all my plumbing would be on one side:

On my current tank now I went from filter socks to a Red Sea reef mat 1200 which I love. Problem is you really have to reduce the flow to get any kind of life out of the roll (I have 1 COR 20 currently on my 210 at 30% and my rolls last about 2 months). This is not really feasible with such a large system so back to filter socks I go. Not a huge deal I guess.

*** Miracles Build process ***​

Here are a couple pictures of the tank being built.

I saw another picture here on R2R of someone who had a 1 piece eurobrace on their tank and I fell in love, such a clean look! I decided to go 1 piece for this tank. Let me tell you, its not cheap. But being this is a dream build, misewell go with the dream and get er done!

Pictures of the sump:

 

[djkms]

reserved

 

[djkms]

***Aquascaping***​

For the aquascape I am going with NSA like I did on my 210. I had a couple buddies over to help with that. I am starting the base pieces outside the tank and will finish it in the tank once its here. These rockscapes start to get heavy quick. I drove out to the Florida Keys (about 6 hours away) and hand picked my rock (600lbs) from Addictive Reef Keeping. Highly recommended by the way!

 

[djkms]

*** Full Tank Shots ***
​

01/12/24

 

[djkms]

*** Equipment ***​

• 8 Radion XR30 G6 Pro's
• 1 Radion XR30 G4 (fuge/frag light)
• Neptune Apex A2 Pro / WXM / MXM / AFS / FMM (x2)
• Reef Octopus Varios 10
• 2xVectra L2 pumps for closed loop
• 2xVortech MP60's
• 2xVortech MP40's
• Nero 5 (refugium flow)
• Reef Octopus Regal 300INT 12" Internal Protein Skimmer
• Reef Octopus Recirculating CO2 Scrubber
• Apex DOS's for dosing & auto water change
• Poseidon 200 Ozone Generator
• Lifegard Aquatics 90w UV Sterilizer

 

[djkms]

*** Livestock ***​

Fish (49)

5 African Blue/Green Reef Chromis Chromis
6 Bartlett's Anthias Pseudanthias bartlettorum
Bicolor Angelfish Centropyge bicolor
Blue Girdled Angelfish Pomacanthus navarchus
Blueface Angelfish Pomacanthus xanthometopon
2 Cleaner Common Wrasse Labroides dimidiatus
Convict Tang Acanthurus triostegus
2 Copperband Butterflyfish Chelmon rostratus
Coral Beauty Angelfish Centropyge bispinosa
Emperor Angelfish Pomacanthus imperator
2 Engineer Goby Pholidichthys leucotaenia
Flame Angelfish Centropyge loriculus
Flameback Angelfish African Centropyge acanthops
French Angelfish Pomacanthus paru
2 Green Mandarin Synchiropus splendidus
Multicolor Angelfish Centropyge multicolor
Naso Tang Naso lituratus
Pygmy Cherub Angelfish Centropyge argi
Queen Angelfish Holacanthus ciliaris
Red Christmas Checkerboard Wrasse Halichoeres claudia
Regal Angelfish Pygoplites diacanthus
6 Resplendent Anthias Pseudanthias pulcherrimus
3 Sleeper Blue Dot Goby Valenciennea sexguttata
2 Tomini Tang Ctenochaetus tominiensis
Watanabei Angelfish Genicanthus watanabei
Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish Forcipiger flavissimus
Yellow Wrasse Halichoeres chrysus
Yellowhead Jawfish Opistognathus aurifrons

 

[blaxsun]

Beautiful tank(s). Will be watching your build with interest!

 

[SoggyNW]

dude that 210 is awesome looking, cant wait to see how your new tank comes together.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Awesome tank! We went with Miracles for our 460 peninsula and couldn't be happier. You can check out the build thread here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/m...gallon-custom-miracles-aquarium-build.715455/ We used to live in the Tampa area (New Port Richey). Great place to live, but when we were there I couldn't find an aquarium club either...

 

[JonoH]

Looking forward to seeing this one progress!

 

[ShoreReefer]

This going to be a monster, good luck with the build!

 

[djkms]

Awesome tank! We went with Miracles for our 460 peninsula and couldn't be happier. You can check out the build thread here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/m...gallon-custom-miracles-aquarium-build.715455/ We used to live in the Tampa area (New Port Richey). Great place to live, but when we were there I couldn't find an aquarium club either...

There is a reef club in Tampa - Tampa Bay Reef Club. They are meeting again after COVID but I haven't had a chance to get to one yet but I am active in their Facebook group. I live in Spring Hill which is about an hour away.

Curious, my tank is going to be about a foot longer than yours. How well are the 4 MP60's creating flow for you? From the pictures in your thread it looks like you have the returns at the other end of your peninsula. Do you think 4 MP60's would provide enough flow at the far end of your tank for acropora if it were a foot longer without your returns there?

I have my tank drilled for a closed loop and I am currently building my aquascape to hide the returns as best as I can but so far its kind of taking away the minimalist look I wanted to go with for my aquascape.

 

[lubeck]

This is going to be a great build! Curious to see the scape with the closed loop. What will be the turnover all together?

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

There is a reef club in Tampa - Tampa Bay Reef Club. They are meeting again after COVID but I haven't had a chance to get to one yet but I am active in their Facebook group. I live in Spring Hill which is about an hour away.

Curious, my tank is going to be about a foot longer than yours. How well are the 4 MP60's creating flow for you? From the pictures in your thread it looks like you have the returns at the other end of your peninsula. Do you think 4 MP60's would provide enough flow at the far end of your tank for acropora if it were a foot longer without your returns there?

I have my tank drilled for a closed loop and I am currently building my aquascape to hide the returns as best as I can but so far its kind of taking away the minimalist look I wanted to go with for my aquascape.

It would depend on your aquascape. I have over 250 colonies in the tank and I don't think th MP60's by themselves would cut it. I have an Abyzz A100 and an Abyzz A200 returning at the end opposite the overflow through 2 - 1" Sea Swirls so they provide quite a bit of flow at that end. With an true NSA minimalist aquascape you could probably get away with it until your corals get large.

 

[Xanthurum]

I’m about to start my own build with the exact same dimensions, I’m going with acrylic though. I will be following along for sure!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[djkms]

This is going to be a great build! Curious to see the scape with the closed loop. What will be the turnover all together?

I have not calculated it. But you figure 2 Vectra L2's at 3k per hour minus 10% for head pressure loss, 2 Cor 20's minus 40% roughly (going through chiller on one and UV on another), 2MP60's 100% and 2 MP40's 100%.
Vectra - 5400
Cor20 - 2400
MP60 - 15,000 max flow rate supposedly
MP40 - 9,000 max flow rate supposedly
total - 31,800 GPH

Skeptical to say the least with the manufactures numbers but there should be enough flow I think. If not I plan on putting Gyre's on the back wall to help.

It would depend on your aquascape. I have over 250 colonies in the tank and I don't think th MP60's by themselves would cut it. I have an Abyzz A100 and an Abyzz A200 returning at the end opposite the overflow through 2 - 1" Sea Swirls so they provide quite a bit of flow at that end. With an true NSA minimalist aquascape you could probably get away with it until your corals get large.

Honestly I feel like I could get away with just 2 closed loop returns in the middle of the tank instead of 4 but I can only have the tank drilled once so I figured I better get the holes drilled now just encase. That being said everyone is shocked when they come see my 210. I only have 2 MP40's for flow run at 80% and there is plenty of flow throughout the whole tank. Its all about placement. Really the MP40's only have to go 3ft before the water pushes against itself and creates an undertow. Not able to do that with how I am designing this peninsula.

I’m about to start my own build with the exact same dimensions, I’m going with acrylic though. I will be following along for sure!

Nice, it will be good to bounce ideas off of each other as these systems come to life!

 

[1ocean]

*** Introduction ***​

Hey All,

Figured its time to get this build thread started.

So a little about me. Name is Kris (male). I have been in and out the hobby since I was 14 (45 now). I moved from Colorado to Florida in 2020 and currently live in the Tampa Bay area. When I first moved out here I was really excited to get a tank set back up and tried to find the local aquarium groups here and to my surprise I couldn't find any! I don't do social media and in Colorado our local group was on forums (MASC). No such luck here so I got on Craigslist looking for a used tank. I ended up getting a 210 gallon with tank, stand canopy and equipment. In my haste I didn't really examine the glass well and brought it home. Needless to say the glass has scratches all over it and it has been annoying me ever since. Also come to find out all the local groups here are on Facebook so alas, I am now on social media.


Well fast forward to now in 2023 and I finally have my truck paid off and its time to get my dream tank. I am also in a house that I will stay in at least until my daughters graduate and are out of the house. So I called around to all the custom tank manufacturers and got quotes.

I ended up going with Miracles Aquariums and so far I have been pleased with the process. I really also appreciated the level of customer service they have provided members here on R2R. Derek has been awesome to work with as well. He has taken my multiple phone calls and responded to multiple emails and has been keeping me in the loop during the whole process. Derek has also brainstormed ideas with me and was not afraid to give me his professional opinion on certain aspects of the build which I appreciated. Also, I found their pricing to be really competitive. They also took their annual summer vacation during this build and let me know ahead of time for the radio silence.

Here are the spec of the system:

• 96x48x30 Peninsula w/Starphire glass on 3 sides and eurobrace w/starboard bottom
• White powder coated steal stand 40" high
• 62x32x21.5 Sump

For livestock I am going Acropora, Chalices, Cyphastrea and maybe a couple other really slow growing encrusters. That's it. This will be predominantly a Acropora Tank only. I have done SPS dominant tanks in the past but they always end up as mixed reefs. Not this time. Sticking with my vision!

I am also an angelfish lover and will continue with that trend. I currently have an Emperor, Flame, and Regal which will make their way into this new system. I will also look into getting larger angels now since I will have the room. Moorish Idol is also on my radar again as well.

I have equipment that will be coming off my current 210 as this tank will be broken down and all the corals sold (I did frag some acro's & chalices to place in the new system). I am starting from scratch with rock, sand corals, etc. However most of my fish will be going into the new system.

Current equipment list:

• 8 Radion XR32 G4 Pro's
• 1 Radion XR32 G2 (fuge/frag light)
• Neptune Apex A2
• 2xCOR20 return pumps
• 2xVectra L2 pumps for closed loop
• 2xVortech MP60's
• 2xVortech MP40's
• Nero 5 (refugium flow)
• Reef Octopus Regal 300INT 12" Internal Protein Skimmer
• CO2 Scrubber
• Apex DOS's for dosing & auto water change
• Kalk reactor (probably switching this out for a 44 gallon brute in the garage)
• Poseidon 200 Ozone Generator
• Lifegard Aquatics 90w UV Sterilizer

More equipment to be listed shortly but this is the gist of it. The aquarium is slated to be here the first or second week of October. I already started head hunting 10-12 guys, suction cups and a hydraulic scissor lift to get this in my house. Good thing is my front door is double door and the tank is going to go straight back from the front door.

If you are interested in finding out some of my previous systems I do catalogue them on aquatic log:
https://www.aquaticlog.com/users/djkms

Here is a picture of my current 210 gallon that will be taken down once I get the 600 going:

love this...I am on the edge of having exact tank size made for me soon...so I will be following along .....

 

[djkms]

Yesterday I went and picked up the panels for the stand. Not a huge fan of Ikea but they served their purpose for this. I was originally going to go with ENKÖPING for the panels

but my wife suggested against it. She said the problem is the indentations will just become a dirt trap and she is right. We actually have indentations on my current stand and they get filthy.

I ended up going with VALLSTENA panels which are more plain and modern but will be much easier to clean.

The stand is 40" tall so I got 10 24"x40" panels. I also purchased 2 12"x40" & 2 12"x30" panels for the space between the tank and wall as the tank will sit 12" from the wall so this will hide the plumbing, cords, etc. $326 out the door. Not bad. I believe the ENKOEPING panels would have been a bit over $800 so the savings is nice.

These are all going to be "attached" via magnets imbedded into the panels. Found the magnets here (which were linked in another thread here on R2R).