Nick's Miracle Build

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Today, with the DLS ends, I woke up pretty early and started to drain all the tap water out of the tank. To day is our Aquascaping Day.

Dumped about 360lbs of CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand.

Wife helped me flattened it.

 

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Now it's ready for some rocks.
I took the rocks out of the bin that has been sitting there since last year. These are rocks from Bulk Reef Supply Dried Fiji Liverock and some the BRS members.

This is a killer piece

The King
This piece has a lot of history. It's the very first piece that I bought from Sea World Salem, NH. It has been with me for over 13 years. 29 gallons it was there, 40gallon cube, it was there, Elos System 70, it was there. Unfortunately, I started with all new rocks with the Elos 160XL and the king has been sitting in the bin.

 

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Now for the real aquascape. I've been thinking for the past couple months as to how to aquascape this. It's a peninsula tank with 3 view-able sides. And with such a wide tank, all the 3 sides need to appealing. I always like the two island idea. However, with this tank, it will look just like two piles of rocks.
One day, while cleaning my office desk, I noticed the traveling book of Hawaii. I thought of doing the Hawaiian Islands right away. But to get the whole thing in the tank, the tank will need to be pretty long. I've been to Maui a couple times so I zoomed into the map and came up with Maui and the surrounding islands of Molaka'i, Lanai, Kaho'olawe.
The stretch looks like this and this is what I followed.

With some water

I only had enough water to fill half of the tank. More coming tomorrow

 

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The concept map.

The resulting aquascape

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Cool concept. I like how it turned out. I imagine fish will enjoy the swimming options and real estate it offers.

 

[jah-hoeva]

Liking the scape. You definitely have some cool pieces.

 

[IPWitan]

I am sensing a tank with the potential to unseat our reigning TANK OF THE last 138 MONTHs!!!

 

[Chlorinated]

Awesome aqua scape! Lots of room for corals and fish to hide

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[jamesdong009]

Digging the rockwork!

Your build makes me want to get my frag tank going.

 

[dilligaf29]

very impressive good job everything looks amazing .had time to go threw the whole thread and wow very impressed epic build cant wait to see it all filled up. loven the 4 island rock work

 

[mpsteve]

That aquascape is killer nick. Was thinking of doing a 72x36x24 but after seeing you scape I either wanna go back to my original plan of a 60x60x24 island tank or a setup like yours

 

[Curren007K]

Really neat concept!
One suggestion, maybe try to use less base rock on Maui and have it more suspended for water circulation keeping any detritus/debris from settling.

 

[this is me]

Thanks!
Yeah, Maui island needs some re-arrangement. I made the mistake of picking up all the bigger rocks in the beginning of the aquascape I was left with small pieces to build the main island. The small pieces packed together and it looks a little too much of a rock pile.
It's a tough predicament because I will also use the rocks that the SPS are encrusting on in the current Elos tank when I transfer them. So some of these rock will get pulled and replaced with the rocks that has SPS colony encrusting.

Today is Day 1 of the Miracle 360 gallons tank. I will add a couple of sand from the Elos to seed the tank. And maybe a a piece of rock if I can find a clean pieces without any coral on it. I finished filling the tank and sump up and the system is fully running with a skimmer since last night. One of the MP60QD is DOA and I'm working with Ecotech on a replacement. Flow is always a difficult thing in a peninsula set up. I'm going to get another Vectra M1 and use that as my return as I don't need an L1 power for the return. I will use an L1 coupled with an Ocean motion and plumb the output to the other side of the tank and run it as a closed loop system. I got 4 drilled holes on the Eurobrace o the other side for a reason. I do not want any powerhead on the other side of the tank.

 

[wpeterson]

Oh wow, I hadn't checked in on this thread since the first unfinished basement pictures - unbelievable!

It was great to catch up today and I hope the chaeto/pods help seed your refugium for this epic build. Can't wait to see it coming to life!

 

[Nanoreef15]

Nice basement build.

I think your tank is going to look great.

You put in a lot of times, dedication and cash into this tank.
You sure will get my vote for tank of the quarter or year.



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[nemodan]

Very nice Nick !!!

Daniel

 

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The myth, the legend, the Radium.
Time for me to experience this legendary light.

 

[steevareno]

Nice! I just switched back to a radium too. You'll love it

 

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Let there be light!
Currently running Giesmann 72" Spectra with the following combination. I think the T5 ballast in the Spectra is over driving the T5. I've never seen Blue Plus being this white.
3x250W Radium
2x80W Giesmann Super Actinic
2x80W ATI Blue Plus

 

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