keithschon
Supporting Member
This is really part of my Reefer 250, but I felt this project needs it's own thread. I've gotten tired of always seeing all of my equipment and wires in the living room, so I decided to make a new equipment cabinet. I took a lot of ideas from builds I've seen here.
Here's my "before" picture:
Lots of dangling wires. All my tests and tools out in the open. My ATO reservior taking up lots of space. Near the bottom of the screen is a bunch of stuff sitting on a water-damaged cheap side table. I realized all the clutter was making me a lot less happy about looking at my tank. And the wires going through the Adaptive Reef board made maintenance a lot harder, because I couldn't tell which cord went to what, and it was difficult move/replace/clean pumps and stuff.
I decided I wanted:
- Enough space to store all the things that I commonly access.
- No cords should be unnecessarily hard to get to or identify.
- As little as possible should be visible when the cabinet is closed.
- The cabinet should look nice next to our other furniture.
Here are my after photos:
Got this cabinet on Wayfair, and the sidestand on Amazon. I couldn't hide the wires completely, because they need to go into the top compartment, not the shelves. I considered running them into the back, but that would go against my goal to make maintenance as easy as possible. But I found these white mesh cable management tubes, and they really blend into the wall when I'm not looking for them.
I managed to fit everything inside the cabinet, but I have more storage in the side table if I need it.
The top half has all my tank "peripheries," a backup battery, and the tests that I use most often. The cabinet was flat-pack furniture with a flimsy back, so I got a piece of particle board with the right width and attached it at the back of the cabinet with screws through the sides. I wish I'd had the patience to get a piece cut to use the entire vertical distance, but this still works pretty well. I painted it black and I think it blends with the dark wood cabinet nicely.
I was careful to NOT run cords behind it to keep maintenance easy. Gives the cabinet a more cluttered look, but I'm fine with that tradeoff.
For lighting I'm using LED tape next to the doors, pointed at the back. It can change colors, but frankly I don't like the effect that much, so I normally leave it white. The pic immediately above this has the lights set to yellow. I'm still considering replacing them with something brighter. I also added magnetic door sensors, so the lights turn on automatically when I open the cabinet. Those are the wires running into the bottom of the break out box.
I got this breakout box with switches, and these mounts for the power-bricks, from Smart Device Integrations. Really happy with both, totally recommend them.
Got this holder for my Hanna checkers on Etsy. So far, really convenient.
You might notice that the reservoir disappeared. I got rid of some things in my sump to make room for my Apex ATO thingee with the sensors and float valve there, instead of in the reservoir which was gravity-fed to a float valve in the sump. So far, mixed results. I don't let the PMUP run at night to reduce noise in my basement (a friend is currently living there), and the water now gets low enough in the morning that my return pump makes noise. Still thinking about how to fix it. The old reservoir was ridiculously big, left over from when I had to fill it from a bucket I had to carry. I'm happy to get rid of it, but I might need to find a smaller one now.
Let me know what you think. I'm still open to suggestions for improvements. Or give me ideas for what to do with the unused switch on the breakout box (silly ideas are also welcome). And feel free to ask me where I got stuff or how I did things.
Here's my "before" picture:
Lots of dangling wires. All my tests and tools out in the open. My ATO reservior taking up lots of space. Near the bottom of the screen is a bunch of stuff sitting on a water-damaged cheap side table. I realized all the clutter was making me a lot less happy about looking at my tank. And the wires going through the Adaptive Reef board made maintenance a lot harder, because I couldn't tell which cord went to what, and it was difficult move/replace/clean pumps and stuff.
I decided I wanted:
- Enough space to store all the things that I commonly access.
- No cords should be unnecessarily hard to get to or identify.
- As little as possible should be visible when the cabinet is closed.
- The cabinet should look nice next to our other furniture.
Here are my after photos:
Got this cabinet on Wayfair, and the sidestand on Amazon. I couldn't hide the wires completely, because they need to go into the top compartment, not the shelves. I considered running them into the back, but that would go against my goal to make maintenance as easy as possible. But I found these white mesh cable management tubes, and they really blend into the wall when I'm not looking for them.
I managed to fit everything inside the cabinet, but I have more storage in the side table if I need it.
The top half has all my tank "peripheries," a backup battery, and the tests that I use most often. The cabinet was flat-pack furniture with a flimsy back, so I got a piece of particle board with the right width and attached it at the back of the cabinet with screws through the sides. I wish I'd had the patience to get a piece cut to use the entire vertical distance, but this still works pretty well. I painted it black and I think it blends with the dark wood cabinet nicely.
I was careful to NOT run cords behind it to keep maintenance easy. Gives the cabinet a more cluttered look, but I'm fine with that tradeoff.
For lighting I'm using LED tape next to the doors, pointed at the back. It can change colors, but frankly I don't like the effect that much, so I normally leave it white. The pic immediately above this has the lights set to yellow. I'm still considering replacing them with something brighter. I also added magnetic door sensors, so the lights turn on automatically when I open the cabinet. Those are the wires running into the bottom of the break out box.
I got this breakout box with switches, and these mounts for the power-bricks, from Smart Device Integrations. Really happy with both, totally recommend them.
Got this holder for my Hanna checkers on Etsy. So far, really convenient.
You might notice that the reservoir disappeared. I got rid of some things in my sump to make room for my Apex ATO thingee with the sensors and float valve there, instead of in the reservoir which was gravity-fed to a float valve in the sump. So far, mixed results. I don't let the PMUP run at night to reduce noise in my basement (a friend is currently living there), and the water now gets low enough in the morning that my return pump makes noise. Still thinking about how to fix it. The old reservoir was ridiculously big, left over from when I had to fill it from a bucket I had to carry. I'm happy to get rid of it, but I might need to find a smaller one now.
Let me know what you think. I'm still open to suggestions for improvements. Or give me ideas for what to do with the unused switch on the breakout box (silly ideas are also welcome). And feel free to ask me where I got stuff or how I did things.
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