Hellsinki's DSA NEO 65G Rimless build

[Hellsinki]

Ok so I joined this forum about six months ago when I moved up to a JBJ30RL from a little BC14 after about 15 years of living without a reef tank in my life. So happy to be back in the hobby. For a few months I've been researching the DSA tanks and became convinced that the 65g rimless is for me! Here we go:

Equipment:
DSA NEO 65g pro
Eshopps R100 refugium
Eshopps S150 skimmer
Aqua exel DC pump
WP10 wave maker non wifi
2x Kessil A360WE with controller
Lerusso Designs fixtures
Tunze 3155 ATO (from old tank)

Now onto the pics. Here is everything stuffed into my BC14. I just moved and had to empty the JBJ.

..ok not allowing me to upload photos through tapatalk

 

[DaveMorris]

Looks like a great list to start off with. I'll be looking for those pics.

 

[Hellsinki]

Ok let's try this. Now using the R2R app

And here's the new home

Turns out the S200 skimmer was too big. Had to downgrade to the S150 to make it fitthe sump

Loving the Lerusso Designs fixtures

And got some work done on Father's Day

And most people will either love or hate my 'scape'. It will be an eggcrate/PVC superstructure with sand underneath. I love it and that's all that counts

More coming soon

 

[Hellsinki]

Getting closer..

 

[Rhino]

Very cool looking setup. I love my Kessils. Good luck!

 

[Hellsinki]

Thanks! I had a great experience with my Kessil A160WE over my biocube and my JBJ30RL that's what gave me the confidence to purchase the A360WE units. Time will tell

 

[Hellsinki]

Ok so I work nights right now and only have an hour or less per day to play with my tanks.. Made some progress though. Got the plumbing done, tank and fuge filled. Tested the pump and skimmer. All working fine. Salinity is 1.027, so I'll dilute that down to about 1.024 tomorrow. Have a couple of small leaks on the under side where the hose barbs screw into the bulkheads. I used Teflon tape. I'll take it apart tomorrow and use glue to seal the threads.

 

[Hellsinki]

Made a little more progress today. Reworked my return plumbing. Removed all Teflon tape and used plumbers Goop on the threads. That will require at least 24 hours to cure, but is waterproof and looks like acrylic to me when it's cured. Also got t
he check valve installed, so when I put the pump in feeding mode, my water levels won't go wacky on me and kick in the ATO, etc. same goes if I lose power. Also put a gallon of 'Mineral Mud' in my fuge. It looks like it will take a day or 2 to settle. This would be a real problem to add to a running sump. Glad I decided to do it now.

 

[Hellsinki]

Ok, today the mineral mud had settled and the Goop cured on my fittings. I started the pump and everything is fine except some silt from the mineral mud clouded the water. I decided to test out my skimmer and was happy to see that it created skimmate right away and helped clear the tank in a few hours. I also hard mounted my Apex Jr and my cord strip. Next task is to sort and label all the cords, and mount all the controllers.

 

[Hellsinki]

Got everything moved over this weekend. All appears well thus far

 

[Hellsinki]

Got a hold of some nice mangroves and my new porites is starting to show its polyps

 

[Tahoe61]

Outstanding.

 

[Hellsinki]

Thanks Tahoe. 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.

I also found an extension for my Kessil control cable so I was able to run the cable inside my Lerusso fixtures. Looks so much cleaner now

 

[Hellsinki]

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.

 

[Hellsinki]

6 month update

 

[Hellsinki]

10 month update

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

10 month update

Dang it looks good!!!

 

[Chrisfish]

Really nice set up!! I have the 30 gal. Jbj now and am already thinking of upgrading to the size you have. Love my kessil's too!

 

[Hellsinki]

Thanks guys. I'm starting to think about my next tank lol

 

[renato120]

Wow! Love it