Pictures of Electronics

[ShaunFresh]

Hey all,

My cabinet is becoming a mess and wanted to see what everyone else cabinet looks like inside. I know some of you have mounted your controllers, power strips, etc. I just wanted to see some pics to get an idea of what I should do. or if anyone has a link to old threads about this, that would be great too. I did search for pics here, but did not interest me what I came across.

 

[Matthew Meyer]

Mine is a hot mess of twisted cords and wires. Like 16 plugs for 2 outlets.

 

[richiev]

Hey all,

My cabinet is becoming a mess and wanted to see what everyone else cabinet looks like inside. I know some of you have mounted your controllers, power strips, etc. I just wanted to see some pics to get an idea of what I should do. or if anyone has a link to old threads about this, that would be great too. I did search for pics here, but did not interest me what I came across.

I'm also looking into this. My plan:

1. buy IKEA Skadis pegboards and mount them in my cabinet. Bonus points will be if I can mount them on rails so they can slide.
2. Consolidate my power bricks by buying a bigger brick and using a splitter on it (currently DIY'ing a smart dc splitter to let me still individually control outlets)
3. A bunch of cable holders to fix cord messes.
4. Possibly buy an external cabinet to move some things out

I'm really interested to see how people secured things to Red Sea stands. I've historically used dual sided tape, but for this to work I think I need to use screws

 

[IOnceWasLegend]

I have an Adaptive Reef control board mounted inside my tank stand:

A secondary DIY "control board" mounted on the back of my stand (currently holds two MP40 drivers, with lights plugged into the power strip on the back):

And a controller cabinet (literally an IKEA cabinet) with a mess of wires hidden behind a board mounted up top:

Everything is mounted up with Command Strips.

 

[Klems]

Everything is labeled.....but not that pretty either

 

[L/B Block]

Funny I was just thinking about this tonight.
Mine isn’t great either -getting better though.

The main controller and some of the modules are on the other side of the wall of the tank.

There are a couple in the cabinet at well.,

 

[ShaunFresh]

Pop

I'm also looking into this. My plan:

1. buy IKEA Skadis pegboards and mount them in my cabinet. Bonus points will be if I can mount them on rails so they can slide.
2. Consolidate my power bricks by buying a bigger brick and using a splitter on it (currently DIY'ing a smart dc splitter to let me still individually control outlets)
3. A bunch of cable holders to fix cord messes.
4. Possibly buy an external cabinet to move some things out

I'm really interested to see how people secured things to Red Sea stands. I've historically used dual sided tape, but for this to work I think I need to use screws

It funny i work in IT and Cable management is not one of my strong points. I definitely would like to see your finished project.

 

[ShaunFresh]

I have an Adaptive Reef control board mounted inside my tank stand:

View attachment 50057

A secondary DIY "control board" mounted on the back of my stand (currently holds two MP40 drivers, with lights plugged into the power strip on the back):



View attachment 50058
View attachment 50059

And a controller cabinet (literally an IKEA cabinet) with a mess of wires hidden behind a board mounted up top:

View attachment 50060

Everything is mounted up with Command Strips.

This is impressive.

 

[CaseyP]

With those super clean controller board setups where you don't see wires, I sometimes wonder how it looks behind the scenes. Granted I'm not amazing at cable management, I try to prioritize functionality first. In an older tank setup, I had enclosed cable raceways, tucked and tied things, but man was it a pain in the ass when I had to trouble shoot or maintain something that required me to pull out the equipment.

For running cables I use these J hooks. Way easier to trace wires and move things around

Power bricks I house separately from the tank and controller board. With the number of bricks I have, it generates a lot of heat and I don't need it heating up the sump under the tank in the summer. I used a simple server rack with trays to lay the bricks on. It acts as a heat sink in some ways too.

 

[richiev]

With those super clean controller board setups where you don't see wires, I sometimes wonder how it looks behind the scenes. Granted I'm not amazing at cable management, I try to prioritize functionality first. In an older tank setup, I had enclosed cable raceways, tucked and tied things, but man was it a pain in the ass when I had to trouble shoot or maintain something that required me to pull out the equipment.

For running cables I use these J hooks. Way easier to trace wires and move things around
View attachment 50079

Power bricks I house separately from the tank and controller board. With the number of bricks I have, it generates a lot of heat and I don't need it heating up the sump in the summer. I used a simple server rack with trays to lay the bricks on. It acts as a heat sink in some ways too.

View attachment 50080

I'm glad I'm not the only one with a bazillion power bricks. There has to be a better way than having all these though. I'm hoping my DC splitter works out and we can all simplify.

I'm imagining all these bricks we all have are also the absolute cheapest garbage the manufacturers can get away with, and are extremely inefficient.

On cable routing, that's the same thing I've been wondering. When I've done hidden cables or wrapped up ones, it makes me feel better when I'm 80% of the way through it, then the last 20 I end up having to do something janky. Then a month later I have to change something and I make it look even worse, telling myself I'll fix it later. I of course never do fix it later.

 

[CaseyP]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with a bazillion power bricks. There has to be a better way than having all these though. I'm hoping my DC splitter works out and we can all simplify.

That would be amazing. I've considered the hydros wavengine to consolidate all my octopulse pumps (5) but cost isn't worth it to me. I definitely can't justify the cost of the Kraken. Only benefit of all the bricks is redundancy. If one of five powerhead pump power supply fails, the others won't be affected.

 

[richiev]

That would be amazing. I've considered the hydros wavengine to consolidate all my octopulse pumps (5) but cost isn't worth it to me. I definitely can't justify the cost of the Kraken. Only benefit of all the bricks is redundancy. If one of five powerhead pump power supply fails, the others won't be affected.

I considered that too, but I think even two bricks would be a much less disaster than the bazillion I have.