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Miracle mud?


Zante

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I have recently heard of this stuff. I have made a search on the forum, but I am still confused.

 

What is it?

Why is it so good?

IS it so good?

 

And anything else you may want to add will be welcome.

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LarryMoeCurly

From their website:

 

While most marine aquarists are only able to maintain a fish-only tank or a coral reef aquarium, with the Miracle Mud Method, keeping BOTH FISH AND CORALS TOGETHER SUCCESSFULLY is not only possible, but it is the norm!

BTW, they did the all caps, not me. I assume this is the stuff your talking about. This is the first I've heard of it.

 

They make some pretty interesting claims here, if it is all true, then it is indeed a miracle. I guess their main claim is that it is some sort of sustained-release, mineral-eluting substrate.

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Nothing from personal experience but I've seen and heard that it is a pain to work with. Seems like you can not have a lot of flow going over it and if something disturbs the mud bed prepare for a mud storm.

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I've had tanks that have both had it and don't have it in the refugium. Honestly, I think having mud in the system is helpful. Couple of things. Either keep the flow low, or cover it with a half an inch to an inch of sand to prevent it from swirling. Don't use it in the main tank unless you're trying for a macro algae tank. Don't use it with vigorous diggers.

 

Currently, I use about 10 lbs in a 12X12"X8" cryptic zone in the sump covered by about 8lbs of aragonite sand and 5-10lbs of live rock. Since I added it, I have gotten a bit stronger colors out of my SPS and my nitrate/phosphate levels are lower, but not starving lower. I don't want to say that it's a panacea, but I have had the most success when I am using it. Your results may vary (for example: I never had great success with biopellets, but plenty of people do). I THINK it helps provide a good area for denitrifying bacteria, provides a great base for some marcro algaes (Halimeda/Penicillus) and stabilize Calc, mg, and trace element levels.

 

TL;DR: Cover it with a layer of sand to reap the benefits without much of the hassle. Worth it.

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Would you advise it for a small system?

Mine is 90 litres display, with a 30 litre (gross) sump, of which about a third is refugium, which currently has an inch and a half of coral sand/aragonite mix with a few pieces of left over rubble thrown in and a handful of cheto.

 

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Would you advise it for a small system? Mine is 90 litres display, with a 30 litre (gross) sump, of which about a third is refugium, which currently has an inch and a half of coral sand/aragonite mix with a few pieces of left over rubble thrown in and a handful of cheto.

I'd say remove the sand and rubble, let 5lbs of the mud settle, top with an inch of sand/aragonite and drop in the rubble and chaeto.

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the guy at my LFS swears this stuff is the second coming of chirst, but then again he told me I could raise a banded cat shark in my 57g.........

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I generally avoid any thing that pitches itself as a miracle cure all, gives me a snake oil vibe. That said, it sounds interesting.

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I purchased a system that was running a mud filter with miracle mud. It is a macro/mud refugium. I have had the system for ten years. It is a mixed reef tank with LPS, softies and numerous filter feeders including Sea Apples for the last 18 months. According to the Eco-system model, the mud should be replenished every year. I have not done this. I find that the bio balls in first chamber break down detritus to be assimilated into the muck. The worms and pods love it, as do corals and inverts, which are feed by refugium.

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I don't personally have any tanks that use it, but the store I work at services a tank with it andI have never seen corals and macros grow as well as they do in this tank. When I set up a tank someday that isn't an AIO, I will be using it.

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I used this stuff in a mangrove pico once before and I feel like it really helped the rooting mangroves. If I didn't have anything rooting in the substrate then I see no reason to use it though.

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Nah the stuff is awesome. Im using 5lb of it in my current fuge. Im about to grab 20lb more for the new build.

 

+1 i have this stuff, and right around the 1 year mark i noticed a color change in the corals which was quickly fixed after i replaced half. it took a couple of weeks but my faded purple clam and purple tort began to color up after i made the switch. honestly, i plan on running it on every sump/fuge system i set up in the future.

 

as for changing it, that's a bit of a hassle, but not hard. i just drained my sump, scooped half of it out (roughly 5lbs) and dumped the bag in. i filled the sump up from a different chamber and let it settle completely before i turned the return pump on.

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I'm planning out a set up for my sump and in my refugium section I was torn with putting live sand or miracle mud. I havnt seen too many reviews on miracle mud, so that kind of makes me think it's a bad thing. Have any of you used the product and can give me your insight. I plan on using about 5-10 lbs of it in my refugium, then add about 3 mangroves with my chaeto. Looking forward to hearing from you guys/gals to help me decide on what direction I should go for my refugium section of my sump. Thanks!

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With respect to live sand, the grain size is the most important thing. For maximum diversity in the sand bed smaller is best. In my opinion, Miracle Mud is no better than sugar sand for diversity in the sandbed. Most formulas are high in iron. My ground water is high in iron, calcium, magnesium and sulfer. Makeup goes straigt into the tank. Over the years, a tank will make its own miracle mud, detritus. I have had my mud filter set up for ten years. With nothing added but untreated raw tank water.

 

With bioballs in first chamber, water enters at top and leaves 2" from the bottom. Detritus is broken up and settles on the bottom with the organic soup crawling with worms. In the second and biggest chamber, the whole biomass on the bottom is spongy to the touch and has gotten slightly deeper over the years. When I thin out Caulerpa Prolifera, I pull out holdfast that remove some of this muck, which has a definite sulfide smell. Above the mud substrate, in the macro section of the second chamber, amphipods and brisstle worms are abundant.

Water leaves second chamber at the top over a glass partition and enters third chamber to be pumped up to dt.

 

With respect to mangroves in sump, you do realize that this is a tree. It will get big.

 

La bonne temps roulee,

Patrick

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  • 3 years later...
  • 4 weeks later...

I just added 2lb of it to my tank. It give out a smell just like the ocean. I have a unused area in the sump so it really didn't hurt to try it out.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm interested in this as well and am wondering if more people have experience with it? For my application, I have no sumps on any of my systems, so am wondering what thoughts would be on putting it in an aqua clear filter with some macro algae as well to grow, kind of a hang of the back refugium? Just curious because I do consistent water changes, but am to the point where I want to try something different and push things a bit.

Thanks!

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I'm interested in this as well and am wondering if more people have experience with it? For my application, I have no sumps on any of my systems, so am wondering what thoughts would be on putting it in an aqua clear filter with some macro algae as well to grow, kind of a hang of the back refugium? Just curious because I do consistent water changes, but am to the point where I want to try something different and push things a bit.

Thanks!

Most likely, your flow rate would be too high and disperse the mud into your display.

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I'm interested in this as well and am wondering if more people have experience with it? For my application, I have no sumps on any of my systems, so am wondering what thoughts would be on putting it in an aqua clear filter with some macro algae as well to grow, kind of a hang of the back refugium? Just curious because I do consistent water changes, but am to the point where I want to try something different and push things a bit.

Thanks!

 

I have a CPR aquafuge that will be here tomorrow.. 2 lbs of miracle mud, an mj400 that I hope will fit in the cpr,

and a bunch of macro I just cleaned from the local lfs...

ran it thru a freshwater dip to kill anything in it and restart it..

also have a bunch of pods on the way from algaebarn that will be here Thursday..

 

hope the pump mod works, but will post regardless

 

i'm more interested in pod propagation than anything

 

FYI, the CPR flow is adjustable.. so the statement "too much flow" is redundant IMO

 

: this is going on my 25 lagoon/ hopefully to feed the tank

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I have a CPR aquafuge that will be here tomorrow.. 2 lbs of miracle mud, an mj400 that I hope will fit in the cpr,

and a bunch of macro I just cleaned from the local lfs...

ran it thru a freshwater dip to kill anything in it and restart it..

also have a bunch of pods on the way from algaebarn that will be here Thursday..

 

hope the pump mod works, but will post regardless

 

i'm more interested in pod propagation than anything

 

FYI, the CPR flow is adjustable.. so the statement "too much flow" is redundant IMO

 

: this is going on my 25 lagoon/ hopefully to feed the tank

 

 

Curious to see how that works!

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