Nick's Miracle Build

[this is me]

Gotta love the oversized wheels on that dolly. Crush stone pavement? No problem.

Strengthen the ramp

Again, they used their rigging experience and got the tank onto the stand without any issue. They were in and out of the property with the tank on the stand and leveled without a single scratch within an hour.

 

[this is me]

I thought I would never see the day where I can stick a hose in this tank and do a water test. But at last! It's happening.

I can only fill the tank up to the returns line but no issue so far. The built quality is pretty amazing from Miracles.

The beast! I will let the water sit in the tank for a couple more days to see if there's any issue with the tank before I can plumb it and aquascape it.
400lbs of sand is coming Thursday and the liverocks are ready in the bin.

 

[scubadan206]

Give those guys a bonus. They did well.
Nothing like having the "experienced" pros who know all the tricks, huh.

 

[biecacka]

Amazing looking work on the basement and on the set up of the tank. You will LOVE that skimmer, they are amazing poop cleaning machines!:lol: mine is much smaller and still keeps up with my tank very easily as they are rated conservative to say the least.
Keep up the good work

Corey

 

[this is me]

Spent pretty much all weekend working on the tank.
Saturday was pretty much a plumbing day. Went to Lowes and basically bought half of their stock lol. Walked out with about $500 worth of plumbing pieces. I bought everything that I think I need and will just return what I don't need when the plumbing is done. I'm sick of driving back and forth in the middle of the job because I don't have that piece.
I completed the plumbing Saturday afternoon and waited about 4 hours to run the tank/sump overnight.

Bean Animal style overflow. I didn't use a lot of union because I know this is not final. I just want to get the tank going and tweak it after I'm more familiar with the set up. It's very likely you will change something after a couple months in.

 

[this is me]

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.

 

[this is me]

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.

 

[this is me]

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

 

[this is me]

The concept map.

The resulting aquascape

 

[GSMclowns]

Very nice aquascape.

 

[Adamc1303]

Really cool build thread! Very nice aquascape!

 

[scar79]

Love the aquascape and concept, but I feel that once you add corals and they start to grow out, the tank may start to feel cramped as the dead space between the rock structures and between the rock and glass get filled up. I know you've already scaped and added water, but it's easier modified now than a year down the road.

Obviously just my opinion - really loving the workmanship and direction of this build. Keep it up!

 

[biecacka]

Very good concept. Can we get a top down photo?


Corey

 

[steelersfan]

Very nice Nick. Congrats!!!!

 

[this is me]

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

 

[this is me]

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

 

[this is me]

 

[Achilles Torben]

Great Rockwork!

Grüße Torben

Gesendet mit Tapatalk

 

[CrayolaViolence]

Very impressive work thus far. And you've never done it before... even better.

Exactly what I was thinking. VERY IMPRESSIVE.

 

[this is me]

Update on the tank.
The tank has been running for ~3 weeks. Livestocks have been settling down for the last two weeks. No casualty so far. In fact, I've added 3 more yellow tangs and 5 more Lyretail Anthias. I love big group of fish. I rather have a group of the same specie fish than individual of different species fishes. The interaction among the group is very fun to watch.

I shouldn't have taken pictures with the feeding being active since it draws all the fish to one side of the tank.