DSA NEO 65 PRO - build by sixpackgarage

[sixpackgarage]

New to the forum from Phoenix, AZ. I thought I'd kick things off with my new build. I just got back into the hobby around Xmas 2014 after a 15 year hiatus from the hobby. To make a long story short, got married had 3kids, changed jobs and moved across the country. I had waited long enough, so the time was finally right. Started with a 14g biocube off Craigslist for $50.. Within a month, I upgraded to a JBJ30RL and now 6 months later my dream tank. This 65 gallon is perfect because it's still manageable and relatively easy to move.

Here's the list of Hardware:
DSA NEO 65 pro with black silicone and their basic plumbing kit (bulkheads and standpipes) and cherry stand
2x Kessil A360WE with controller & Lerusso Designs fixtures
1x Kessil A160WE on the fuge (left over from the JBJ)
Eshopps R100 fuge
Eshopps S150 skimmer
Vortech MP10 non wifi
Tunze 3155 ATO (from old tank)
Neptune Systems Apex Jr.

So here we go

This is when it arrived at my LFS


Brought it home

Started the setup on Father's Day


Built a PVC superstructure. I wanted everything off the sand completely.



Water in



Mineral mud in the fuge and finished plumbing


Day 1 with livestock from my other tank


Yesterday about 3 days after introduction of livestock


Things are still acclimating, more updates coming

[sixpackgarage]

So I turned my return pump up one notch and the extra velocity through the fuge compartment liberated some of the silt off the surface of the mineral mud causing some cloudiness of the tank. The skimmer and micron filter have done a good job of polishing the water, but I turned the pump back down to minimize this. I think I'm going to put a thin layer of live sand on the suface of the mineral mud to completely eliminate this. Today was water test day and all parameters look good. KH is up to about 11 or 12 since I'm running my ATO feed through a Kalk reactor. I think I'll make a weaker mixture next time.


Also found a control cable extension in one of my boxes full of random stuff, which allowed enough length to run the cable inside the Lerusso fixture. Loving the clean look vs. the gooseneck

[sixpackgarage]

Day 10 : yesterday, I added a giant paly colony. Not visually super colorful, but the sheer size is impressive (that's what she said..), also a nice chalice, toadstool and a huge bubble coral.

[NeverlosT]

Looks cool! Very unique display layout

[sixpackgarage]

Originally Posted by NeverlosT

Looks cool! Very unique display layout

Thanks! Finally had some time to spend in the sump area today. Got about 90% of the wiring mess sorted. Always more work to do..luckily I enjoy it


Also to my surprise, less than two weeks in, coralline algae is starting to grow

[sixpackgarage]

Another shot of the wiring starting to look better

[Devaji108]

nice! I love the DSA 65s....

[sixpackgarage]

Thanks man! So 2 of the mushrooms didn't like the center of the tank (too much light). So I moved them and placed the bubble coral in the middle. I'm watching him closely to make sure he's ok there.
Cleaned the glass, so it was picture time..

[sixpackgarage]

Not much going on. Picked up a Mandarin for free. Have not been able to get a decent photo of him yet. Also picked up a frogspawn from a local nano reefer. Other than that all is well. Moved the Yuma away from the bubble as the bubble was attacking it. More and more coralline is appearing on the PVC.

Fuge is getting some algae growth.


Took a top down shot today


Stylo is showing 1-2mm growth in the past week or so


This crab somehow made it up from below


Euphyllia is nice and open and growing little baby stalks

[ViktorVaughn]

Man that egg crate tier system is awesome, that'll look amazing once its grown in. I have the DSA 105 and i'm liking mine so far too.

[sixpackgarage]

Thanks Victor, that's what I'm hoping for. You really have the tank I wanted. I picked the 65 for ease of moving since I usually only stay 1-2 years in my rental houses. The 105 is a superior tank in dimensions..you have a build thread going?

[DrPheel]

Great build thread (or blog I should say)!

I have a few questions concerning the egg crate and stands , Why no live rock ?? will the coral outgrow everything in the long run ?and since there is no live rock what compensates for the filtration ? will the fuge and the skimmer compensate for the LR ?

Keep the pics coming, I love how the Kessils look !

[ViktorVaughn]

Yeah I'm liking the dimensions of mine but if yours is the 36" x 24" I liked it too, almost grabbed it. I really like tanks that are nearly as deep as they are wide, the 2:1 ratio I have is as skewed as i'll go. My build thread is buried somewhere in reef discussion, I need to update its been a while: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2485033

[sixpackgarage]

Originally Posted by DrPheel

Great build thread (or blog I should say)!

I have a few questions concerning the egg crate and stands , Why no live rock ?? will the coral outgrow everything in the long run ?and since there is no live rock what compensates for the filtration ? will the fuge and the skimmer compensate for the LR ?

Keep the pics coming, I love how the Kessils look !

Thanks. There actually is about 20-25 lbs of live rock. It's just obscured by coral. I think the fuge will most certainly compensate as I increase the bio load. I also went significantly oversized on the protein skimmer. I believe having almost everything off the sand, detritus build up will also be minimized over time.

[DrPheel]

Originally Posted by sixpackgarage

Thanks. There actually is about 20-25 lbs of live rock. It's just obscured by coral. I think the fuge will most certainly compensate as I increase the bio load. I also went significantly oversized on the protein skimmer. I believe having almost everything off the sand, detritus build up will also be minimized over time.

Great Idea ! Cant wait to see when the Corals overgrow the egg crate

[sixpackgarage]

Not much new over the weekend. I added a nice frogspawn and green stylo frag as well as a blue surgeon and a banded coral shrimp (not pictured).

[sixpackgarage]

man. sorry for the blurry pic.. looks a lot better on my phone. I really need to invest in a camera.

[Biggibby18]

Awesome setup

[sixpackgarage]

Originally Posted by Biggibby18

Awesome setup

Thanks!

Here's my newest addition. A small green stylo frag. Hope it grows as fast as my purple stylo.


Finally got around to making my screen top using ymthe BRS kit. This kit has been sitting in the garage for over a month. Really happy BRS included enough mesh for 2 attempts. Advice for anyone doing this : don't make the mesh too taut. It will pull the sides in too much. Lesson learned.

A happy accident was my TLF magnet for my veggie clip holds up one side and my feeding ring the other..

[sixpackgarage]

About a week ago I got this mandarin for free from another local reefer.

So I decided to step up my fuge game. Ordered some macro and a couple thousand pods from reefs2go.


When I was planting them, I obviously disturbed the fuge bed..interestingly my pH went from 8.1x to 8.4 for about 10 minutes

[sixpackgarage]

This weekend was a good one. Picked up some corals from 2 local reefers. Got my first acro. It's behind the green thing (ID?). Also a small Duncan frag, a birds best frag, a cool shroom and a nice torch.

Acro

Torch

Fts

[sixpackgarage]

Also this past weekend, I picked up these large flat diffusers. Love them.



My LFS had a killer deal on the 150 series Kessils, so I picked up an Amazon Sun unit for my fuge.


Also yesterday my skimmer went nuts and started overflowing, so I shut it off. Today while I was installing the Kessil, I noticed my Eucheuma was bleaching, so I decided to pull it out. It was full of clear slime. This may explain the skimmer issue and why some of my corals looked stressed. Now my skimmer is normal. I wonder if the breakdown of the Eucheuma released toxins?

[DocHogan]

How is the noise level of the drain to your sump? I Have the same tank but haven't set it up yet and was debating plumbing it similar to yours are include an emergency drain and only have one pipe for a return. Mine is going in a living room so I need it to be a quiet as possible and not like my 75 in the basement...

[sixpackgarage]

Originally Posted by DocHogan

How is the noise level of the drain to your sump? I Have the same tank but haven't set it up yet and was debating plumbing it similar to yours are include an emergency drain and only have one pipe for a return. Mine is going in a living room so I need it to be a quiet as possible and not like my 75 in the basement...

The sump itself is super quiet, the tank overflow is quiet, but you can hear a faint gurgle. I'm only running my return pump on the second notch, so it's pretty low flow.

[ijnoj09]

Originally Posted by sixpackgarage

Another shot of the wiring starting to look better

awesome job on the wiring!