Cord management - are yours organized or spaghetti ?

[Anemone_Fanatic]

What do you mean "spaghetti"? I think you'll find my cord organization looks more like ramen

Why yes, all my controllers and power supplies are in a big pile inside of a plastic bin at the base of the stand. At least if there's a flood they won't get wet.

 

[afrokobe]

What do you mean "spaghetti"? I think you'll find my cord organization looks more like ramen

Why yes, all my controllers and power supplies are in a big pile inside of a plastic bin at the base of the stand. At least if there's a flood they won't get wet.

the latter is also my style. Take the whole bundle and shove it in a box or somewhere elevated then it wont get wet

 

[Hooz]

When I setup my tank I had everything all tied neat and tidy. Then I had to do something in there and ended-up having to undo a bunch of it. It never went back together the same way.

It's all safe (drip loops, etc), but it doesn't look anything like it used to. It's a bit of an organized mess at this point.

New build, new stand, new tank... This one I'm planning it out a bit better. I'm setting everything up knowing that I will have to get to it and/or pull it out at some point. So there will at least be some method to the madness.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

As stated above, hair clips. Or if that's not cool enough for you you can use theses...



Velcro straps work too.

Honestly had no clue those even existed

 

[afrokobe]

Honestly had no clue those even existed

apparently there are reusable zipties too. Maybe I should do this instead of cutting everything out when servicing

 

[Gumbies R Us]

apparently there are reusable zipties too. Maybe I should do this instead of cutting everything out when servicing

I'm probably going to order some of these now, haha

 

[vetteguy53081]

I'm probably going to order some of these now, haha

My favorite are the velcro version

 

[zheka757]

Halides

All 3 actually, helides, t5s and leds.

 

[rd62rdstr]

I keep ziptieing things together. Then when I go to deep clean have to cut all of them up. How do you keep your cables managed if you have to service the stuff?

Use Velcro strips

 

[JoJosReef]

Tried to make a simple, cheap pullout for cords and controllers. Problem is pulling it out gets everything tangled up.

 

[FishKeeper.mp3]

mildly organized but mostly spaghetti

 

[Roatan Reef]

Maannnn...I've tried my best to organize and have it look amazing, but best I can do is make it look decent. It was looking really good till 2 weeks ago, lighting struck, took out power in our neighborhood, I wasn't home, but wife was, battery back up kicked in and worked fine, but wife got paranoid and started unplugging stuff to make sure it was all on generator....now it's a mess again...

Geez!!

 

[Gill the 3rd]

There's nothing wrong with spaghetti wiring as long as any plugs or power strips are elevated so they cant get wet. I came home from work one day to my reef tank with no power and my GFCI tripped. I reset the GFCI and pretty much had a 4th of July fireworks show go off behind my sump. Turns out the small extension cord plug i had for my MP40 had fallen on the ground and I didn't notice. That day protein skimmer went crazy and saltwater started running out of the collection cup down the back of my sump onto the floor where the plug was. I was really lucky I didn't have a massive fire.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

My favorite are the velcro version

I do use those for some things, those have always worked great for me and are easy to take on and off

 

[Short Reefer]

Made plenty of mistake on previous setup. Spend little time just to makesure everything is label, zipped, and covered correctly.

 

[calhoun3186]

I keep my cords tidy with zip ties and arrange them with drip loops

 

[branbray07]

Great topic

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Made plenty of mistake on previous setup. Spend little time just to makesure everything is label, zipped, and covered correctly.

I'd be curious to see a photo of this same angle 4+ years from now when the tank has large colonies of corals and you've had to replace broken equipment that is labeled and zipped.

I think we all start off this way (some better than others,@Short Reefer, yours is amazing btw), but as our focus moves to biology of a healthy tank, that beautiful set up takes a back seat and we realize having equipment set up as a show piece isn't necessarily practical when you have a late night emergency and the tanks health is on the line.

Not to say that some people won't keep up with maintaining a show piece. For the majority, they quickly realize that it doesn't make the tank health any better and that time can be better spent on something else.

 

[Stevorino]

Before new build:

Now:

 

[Cichlid Dad]

This is a new build, so organized for now, 1 year later who knows!