Show off your wiring/cable management

[Brew12]

so new guy here and as an industrial electrician having a neat and easily workable cable management is something "wired" into me *wink wink*

I wanted to do an electrical cabinet on a budget so it's not completely amazing and has flaws but when someone comes by I want them to see not just the tank being amazing but the equipment also has the sense of detail and craftsmanship.

the cabinet isn't done yet due to waiting on last minute pumps and other pieces of equipment but here's what I have so far.

everything still needs to be mounted and dust vacuumed but will update it as the build progresses

any tips or tricks are more the welcomed

I'll offer a piece of advice from a lesson I learned on my first build.

I wanted the cord management to look amazing. And it did. Until I had to remove the skimmer or return pump for maintenance. It took longer to get the cords removed and back looking nice than the actual cleaning.

Now, I make the looks tertiary. First, I make sure I have a safe installation from drips and spray. Second, I make sure everything is practical. I can pull my skimmer in seconds now and everything is well labeled. Third, I want it to look decent.

 

[MaccaPopEye]

I'll offer a piece of advice from a lesson I learned on my first build.

I wanted the cord management to look amazing. And it did. Until I had to remove the skimmer or return pump for maintenance. It took longer to get the cords removed and back looking nice than the actual cleaning.

Now, I make the looks tertiary. First, I make sure I have a safe installation from drips and spray. Second, I make sure everything is practical. I can pull my skimmer in seconds now and everything is well labeled. Third, I want it to look decent.

This 100% best advice! My cable management was on point when I set up my tank. Used cable ducts and had everything in neat and tight. 1 year later it's an absolute mess. I need to completely redo it all.

 

[Justin Thain]

So I build two cabinets on each side of my 210 gallon tank. Here what the cable management looks like

 

[doubleohwhatever]

So I had a slightly different but similar problem. My sump was in a 3rd car garage where we also have the litter boxes for our cats. Our cats tend to chew on wires and after replacing many wires I came up with what you see in the attached photo when I switched to a dreambox.

Not the prettiest but it worked because not a single wire has been chewed since I installed the new sump and protected the wiring. This is the stuff I used:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006ZBYHB6/

 

[Bob Escher]

I hope their litter box isn’t in there too. How do you keep the sump covered

 

[doubleohwhatever]

I hope their litter box isn’t in there too.

It is. However, the garage has a 24/7 vent fan that runs the air through a carbon filter before it goes outside. Fresh air is pulled from inside the house which keeps the garage at decent temperatures all year.

How do you keep the sump covered

Covered from what?

 

[mistaflicksta]

What kind of cabinet is this?

 

[Christian H]

These are sexy setups

 

[mistaflicksta]

Still working on mine.

 

[ReeferReefer]

Some serious inspiration here! I've got to step up my game.

 

[Atti2de]

Sump wire management:

 

[vetteguy53081]

Still in the works. Components placed for now but re-arranging when I get my 5 days off for Xmas

 

[TheArsalan]

@Broadfield that tank cabinet is amazing.
Off topic but just flipped through the rest of the photos and wow. That 240sx (Silvia?) rebuild is ridiculous. The level of detail.. can’t imagine the time and cost of that project.. would love to see how it came out

 

[Catfish2]

Work in progress... tank is on the back side of this closet.

Behind the panel:

Mini control panel under the stand:

 

[Don Lidtke]

This is my Apex mounted on the wall of my fish room but I have no tank or sump, yet.

 

[Algae Farmer]

So much better now that I finally cleaned it up.
What?

 

[Cliff717]

Hmmm after seeing all these sweet wire management

systems it makes me think I should do something with this lol

 

[ChrisW]

The plan is for another energy bar and then the modules, hence the gaps between everything. That whole panel can come off for when I need to extract a cable from it

 

[Metcho]

Here’s the electrical panel I built for my 40 gallon breaker penensula tank. It’s so my 2 yr daughter couldn’t get to any of the power cords. I built the box from polar and but light gray starbaord on face and flush mounted two power strips and a jeboa doser and two jeboa SW8 powerheads jeboa DCS 6000 and ATO and doing containers are at bottom

 

[Bruce Burnett]

don't know how you all get them so neat and keep them that way as many of my cords are not long enough if it tried to make them organized. I did start with most of them neatly done but after removing pumps for maintenance I said forget it. I guess if my sump was on the other side of the wall it would be easier.