Reviving 150 gallon Old Faithful

[rpkneumann]

After my first tank burnt and crashed after 4 years I was going to quit.
That lasted about 2 weeks then my son said I need to continue reefing. He found and old school tank for a hand full of dollars.
When we went to pick it up I found this in a chicken coup and fell in love with it:

-Oceanic 2005 build dual overflow 150 gallon tank
- Trigger systems sump crys36s
- stable not worth much
- hacked apart plumbing
- ton of dirt and dried calcium
We loaded it on the truck and off we went
First unloading the nearly 600 lbs tank was an adventure.
I decided to plan a build up but first give it a clean.
Here are some before and after pictures

 

[Johnd651]

Nice. Is that a bottom divider in the tank?

 

[rpkneumann]

Nice. Is that a bottom divider in the tank?

Yes it has a slit on the bottom so water can flow. It’s very thick and probably was done for additional support. Same with the plate on the top. The bracket sits on top of it.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[rpkneumann]

This is going to be a slow process.
Before I even cleaned the tank i did a lot of research and designed a new stand. The old one looked sturdy but somebody had hacked the supporting 2x4 in half to accommodate the plumbing. Didn't feel safe about that.
Next ...Make room in garage, buy wood, cut wood, build stand.

Not only did i use free tinkercad for the design but also started a master spreadsheet for all the components i would love to have.

-Plumbing
-Pumps (tank has two overflows, rated at 660GPH each. Only two holes drilled in each. No room for another one. I want two drains and two separate returns. (a little bit of failsafe)
- Rock/Sand
- Lights
- ATO
- Maintenance
I did own a BioCube before. Was happy about it and had some success. Its still around ....perhaps i develop more plans for that in the future.
The spreadsheet i added is "work in progress", but i did most of the research. Spend about 3 weeks on the net reading up all opinions watched a hundred youtubes and trying to not break my fixed income. Whats amazing is how this hobby changed in only a few years.
Would be nice to have the best equipment. But good enough works for me.
I'll attach the spreadsheet. Has a few tabs and is not sorted optimal. A living document.
Here are some design screenshots for the stand. It was fun researching how much load wood can actually take. Big difference between vertical and horizontal. Read up on some of the information sources I found:

Wood
Woodworking Handtools Essential
Plumbing:
Dimensions, Tube Max Flow Rates: ....
PVC Reference
Free plumbing design software, not to scale, but it creates parts list and help visualize what you planning . asample attached
DIY plumbing Design
Flow Rate Calculators (Head Loss)
PowerZone Friction loss Calculator
Pumps:
Nearly all manufactures have their pump performance charts expressing how many GPH or LPH they deliver at what hight. To determine pump size its as easy as looking for your parameters and adding then some.....
Some of the info.
The spreadsheet is like a scratchbook.

Any suggestions?

 

[rpkneumann]

Just picked up a great deal on some open box AP700.
A good starting point. Planning to keep mostly fish and a few softies and LPS.
Re-did my plumbing.
I think I'm going to stick with the original dual Megaflow. It looks like two Durso. No tank drilling, no lines over the back.

The bigger change is not wanting to use socks. There a several Filter Rollers which fit into my crystal36s sump. (on paper ). We'll see when i get there.
It made sense to combine the two drains into one feeding a Filter Roller.

Its coming long .....

Stand (wip) . Decided to add 1" feet to get the skirt of the ground.

New plumbing plan: (sorry for the messy paper scribble, but it works for me.

 

[rpkneumann]

Some time has gone by. The stand is nearly ready for paint. Sanded the first time after having put a ton of wood putty in crevices
Some places needed an additional layer of putty. Wet towel to get the worst of the dust off. Now drying and tomorrow will be primer day.

Then sand again.....

My plumbing plan continues to change as I mull about options. I received a feedback that the original Aqueon Overflow drains (Durso) are actually very quiet but then .... many opinions floating around.

Now I'm thinking of throwing out the existing overflows, plug the holes and drill new holes in the back wall for a Fiji or Eshopps low profile External Overflow Box. (1200 GPH). Same capacity as the old overflows but a lot less space taken. Another positive thing is that plumbing would be a lot easier.
Then i can install a Bean Animal drain and end the noise discussion.

I have still time to decide, But its coming closer .
Any feedback from followers in this thread?