afboundguy's 35 cube/display fuge/mangrove build thread!!!

[afboundguy]

This weekend I'm starting cable management on mine...again lol. Put a new cabinet together and so now I have to move it all over but im going to loom it all.

I have stopped counting how many times I have tried cable management at this point but this is the closest to the finish line I've gotten so far!!!

 

[afboundguy]

Was home for lunch and heard the familiar honking UPS drivers do and was surprised that my order of PVC parts for mixing station came so quickly! I ordered through 247garden.com and I have ordered many times and the prices are amazing and the orders get here super fast!

 

[Dirtyshoez]

I'm in the **** with you today bud lol.

 

[afboundguy]

Got a tablet mount for the Chromebook that will be on and it isn't totally flush with the controller board and slightly angled and I wasn't sure how I would like it but I have no issues with it and like the flexibility this mount gives me!

 

[Dirtyshoez]

Oooo... that is sharp. Looks waaay better than before lol.

 

[afboundguy]

Oooo... that is sharp. Looks waaay better than before lol.

Thanks. I may have a little surprise coming with a 3D printed item that will jazz it up even more over the next few days

 

[Dirtyshoez]

Thanks. I may have a little surprise coming with a 3D printed item that will jazz it up even more over the next few days

Nice man, here's mine as of today

 

[afboundguy]

Nice man, here's mine as of today

Nice! What cords did you use for the XP8? I am experimenting with different ones to get that look.

 

[Dirtyshoez]

I ordered some on Amazon a while back, I got 2 different kinds and the ones with the flat surface are my favorite. Give me a little bit and ill post the link

 

[Dirtyshoez]

https://a.co/d/0bG0OvgK
These are the ones I prefer

 

[afboundguy]

https://a.co/d/0bG0OvgK
These are the ones I prefer

Just ordered a 5 pack! I have two that the outlet can swivel and I don't think I have 8 outlets worth of stuff right now but I will need more of these for the two WiFi strips!

 

[afboundguy]

Painted the trim of the custom controller board. Might redo it in a flat paint later as semi-gloss is almost too shiny.

 

[afboundguy]

Checked the length of most of the sense port items to see if I will need any extension cables and should be all set. Might need two whenever I get the water changing station up and running!

I ordered a couple of different black surge protectors as the one I have now is awesome but it's yellow so it would stick out like a sore thumb. Not sure if I'll mount the new surge protector to the outside or inside of the side trim. Ideally I would like it inside but I'll have to play around with it once I get them both in my hands.

I plan to drill holes in the bottom of each side trim for wire management purposes to tidy it up. I did mount the Kraken's PSU with 1/2" aluminum spacers to allow for better cooling!

 

[afboundguy]

It's official! RKE controller is offline and Hydros is up and running!!! I still need to do some wire management but it's a huge improvement already!

In case you don't remember how beautiful it looked before here's a quick reminder...

After...

 

[afboundguy]

Got some work done today to include setting up a kalk reactor! It's way overkill (Icecap large) but I'm only starting to dose 100 ml a day and I'll go from there.

I am using the pre-programmed kalk reactor already in the Hydros so it stirs it every 4 hours and doesn't dose until 30'ish minutes after it's done stirring.

I also hooked up a spare pH probe to try and monitor the pH in the reactor so I can gauge when I need to refill it!

 

[afboundguy]

Swapped out old ATO for the Hydros version and found a nice corroded magnet! Luckily it only really touched water when I had the return pump off and luckily I don't do that often!

 

[afboundguy]

Hooked up a single Hydros dosing pump to run the vinegar/carbon dosing so I could ditch the Jebao dosing pump that was only dosing that!

Also hooked up the phyto dosing to the Minnow (2 headed dosing controller)

 

[afboundguy]

Finally hooked up the battery for the backup. I had to disable the auto-charge in the kraken since it can only safely charge LSA batteries but I have a LifePO4 safe battery charger. I have to add a step up converter to be able to run the Jebao return pump but the Mighty Jet for the fuge/mangrove tank worked in low power mode (it switches from 24V to 12V) and the skimmer pump worked as well!

 

[Dirtyshoez]

Looking good man. Do you have a sense on how you're gonna do the wiring yet?

 

[afboundguy]

Looking good man. Do you have a sense on how you're gonna do the wiring yet?

Thanks! I have this stuff (https://www.homedepot.com/pep/YICHU...M2h9H9uB-oEzcfIZgXEc2OgROeYpq0BxoCgpwQAvD_BwE) and right now I have the flat piece mounted on the back of the sump and plan to run all the wires through that.

For the controller board I plan to use zip ties and run all the cords either through the holes or just pull them up from the bottom as it's open.

I plan to add a back to the controller board that is at the end of the sump under the tank to close that up as well. Unfortunately wire management would be something that would alleviate a lot of stress/frustration every time I walk by the tank and see the mess (at least it's way better than it was!) and make things look awesome but I work 50-70+ hours a week so it's hard to prioritize it when everything is working when I have tons of other things to do that need to be done as normal maintenance