Jesus's 190G LeeMar Starphire upgrade

plankton

plankton

Premium Member
A friend of mine could not pass up a deal on a beautiful 190G starphire tank (60" x 30" x 24") and high stand. He currently has a 240G sps tank in a fishroom located around the corner from the main entrance to the house and sorta behind the stairs. Basically it is not in the living room. He plans on taking down the 240 and reusing much of the equipment (deltec skimmer, calcium reactor, etc) on the new 190G setup right in the living room by the stair and visible pretty much from anywhere in the house.

The tank was drilled to accommodate four 1" schedule 40 bulk heads and two schedule 80 1 1/4" bulk head returns. He has an ocean motion and a 3000 GPH sequence that we were thinking of plumbing in, but we're open to other ideas. But, he also has several sea-swirls and tunze power heads...

The tank will be SPS dominated so he wants lots of chaotic flow. The tank will remain open top and all equipment except the chiller must go inside the stand. And, since the tank will be centerpiece in the living room it must be mostly quiet (no pump hum or gurgling sounds).

So, first things first. How to achieve high, chaotic flow while at the same time keeping total power usage down? Single 3000GPH pump, smaller closed loops or go power heads (tunze, etc)?

How would you plumb the tank? Thanks in advance for your ideas...

1) Front of tank showing predrilled holes for 1" bulk heads

front-8.jpg


2) Eurobrace and center return

euro-brace.jpg


3) Top-down shot showing depth of tank and two 2 3/8" holes to accomodate 1 1/4" schedule 80 bulksheads.

top2.jpg


4) Side-shot

side-4.jpg


Scott
 
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Looks perfect Jesus! When are you planning on having it all set up? Are you using the rock from your existing tank?
 
Nice tank Jesus.. Scotts will you be updating the build thread? :) You know, i'll be starting be starting mines soon. :) i'll need a technical writer as well.
 
Quiet was one of my highest priorities in my build. I achieved it by building a fish closet in the garage. You have no opportunity to plumb to another room? My closed loop and return pumps make a lot of noise, I wouldn't want them in my living room. Therefore, I'd choose Vortechs or Tunze's. Is your skimmer quiet enough to meet the requirement?

I should update my build thread on the MARS forum. You can see part of what I've done there.
 
And my biggest advice is to plan your rockwork. I committed to spending as long as two months working on the rock design after the tank was set up and we knew when it was what we wanted. Also, pick a substrate that works with your desired flow. I bought a chunky mix of crushed coral that I'm happy with.
 
RonMidtownStomp said:
And my biggest advice is to plan your rockwork. I committed to spending as long as two months working on the rock design after the tank was set up and we knew when it was what we wanted. Also, pick a substrate that works with your desired flow. I bought a chunky mix of crushed coral that I'm happy with.
Click to expand...

+1 And I bought a substrate that I am not happy with. Although it is not impossible to change after the fact, it's a helluva lot easier to crumple up your spec. sheet than it is to replace a sandbed or rockwork.
 
Nice tank Jesus. Looking forward to seeing the build progress. If you need a hand with anything let me know.

If you want it to be quiet, run a Herbie style overflow. You've got three holes in the overflow so you can do it. I also recommend the Tunze Hydrofamer Silence pumps for your skimmer; they've very quiet and energy efficient. Between 4 Tunze streams, 2 Tunze skimmer pumps, and my Dart I barely have any audible hum and almost zero water noise thanks to the Herbie. In fact the noisiest thing on my system is the exhaust fan.
 
Scott, is this going in the same spot as the old 125g?
Click to expand...

Lak - Yes, exactly.

RonMidtownStomp - Sugar-sized aragonite is great until you blast 1000s of GPH across the top of it and it starts 'sand duning'. Good advice.

Jake - You have the quietest 'BIG' tank I know of. Will definitely look into Herbie style overflow.

Here is what the tank might look like with a closed loop tied to Ocean Motion. A simple pump (eheim 1260) could be used as sump return.

Sorry, have no clue how to use SketchUp...but slowly learning.

Please note I used an existing closed-look sketchup model by Andy as a basis for this mockup.

1) 'Closed loop' front view:

JesusCLv3-front.jpg


2) 'Closed loop' back view:

JesusCLv3-back.jpg


Scott
 
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The hard part for me was when I started adding gate valves, unions and pipe diameters to my plan. I have a control valve on all four returns for flow balancing and control, and I wanted to be sure I could shut off and remove the OM 4-way and the Barracuda. It turned into a lot of plumbing parts. The whole pump/OM 4-way configuration turned out to be much larger than I envisioned it (BIG). Be sure it will fit behind the tank in the space you want it to fit into.

I also really like my penductors on the returns because they're so easy to adjust. I like to reaim my flow every week or two.

Great work in Sketchup, I also used it for my rockwork layout:

2234188790038763404S600x600Q85.jpg


Here's a photo of my final OM 4-way contraption. Don't get confused by the return pump that's behind it. I can take some measurements if you know which ones would be helpful to you.

2987317090038763404S600x600Q85.jpg


Here's a photo of my rockwork in progress.

2972434250038763404S600x600Q85.jpg


Ron
 
Jake - By 'Herbie' 3-hole design do you mean like this one written up by BeanAnimal?

Update. Never mind, I found your rather nice writeup on most if not all the different Silent Overlows techniques Jake. Well done. Jesus has even more homework now. He he he.



Scott
 
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plankton said:
Jake - By 'Herbie' 3-hole design do you mean like this one written up by BeanAnimal?

Scott
Click to expand...

No.

The Herbie only needs 2 holes, but of course you want a hole for the return pump too. BeanAnimal's design is not a Herbie, it's his own take on a different design that utilizes 3 pipes for the overflow, the return would make a total of 4.

Info on the Herbie (as well as the one you mentioned) here.
 
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