Where do you keep your equipment?

[rkpetersen]

Unfortunately I'm constrained to what I can put under the cabinet or nearby. There is no handy closet on the other side of a wall from either of my tanks, and I don't have a basement (homes with basements are exceptionally rare around here.) My wife would also rather I not 'destroy' the house in pursuit of my hobby. So I have to use space efficiently.

Here's the sump space and electronics space of one of my tank cabinets. I also place or attach some pieces of equipment behind the tank, such as the UPS, Gyre interface adapter, CO2 scrubber, air pump/dryer, and dosing containers.

As far as supplies, I also have to cache them where I can. Here's my main supply cabinet. It's positioned in a short corridor between the two tank rooms. Bookshelf from Ikea.

And I've also made incursions into the kitchen cabinet space. :)

Oh, and as far as labeling cords goes, these are the tags I like:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KYWKH8O/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[mitch91175]

Unfortunately I'm constrained to what I can put under the cabinet or nearby. There is no handy closet on the other side of a wall from either of my tanks, and I don't have a basement (homes with basements are exceptionally rare around here.) My wife would also rather I not 'destroy' the house in pursuit of my hobby. So I have to use space efficiently.

Here's the sump space and electronics space of one of my tank cabinets. I also place or attach some pieces of equipment behind the tank, such as the UPS, Gyre interface adapter, CO2 scrubber, air pump/dryer, and dosing containers.

As far as supplies, I also have to cache them where I can. Here's my main supply cabinet. It's positioned in a short corridor between the two tank rooms. Bookshelf from Ikea.

And I've also made incursions into the kitchen cabinet space. :)

Oh, and as far as labeling cords goes, these are the tags I like:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KYWKH8O/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I like the kitchen cabinet incursion part :). My wife asked me this morning on my stuff on top of the refrigerator, "What is that doing there?". I said I use it everyday and I thought that was the best place for it. She didn't freak out, but she has told me that the day I die she is getting rid of everything related to the aquariums :(

 

[Greybeard]

...she has told me that the day I die she is getting rid of everything related to the aquariums :(

Can you give her my card, please? Just in case :)

Seriously, one of my worst nightmares is that something will happen to me, and my wife will sell the contents of my gun room for what I told her I had in it.

 

[mitch91175]

Can you give her my card, please? Just in case :)

Seriously, one of my worst nightmares is that something will happen to me, and my wife will sell the contents of my gun room for what I told her I had in it.

What is it with us in this hobby. We ALWAYS tend to have other EXPENSIVE hobbies as well, :). I also collected guns, but I just had to tap the brakes on it. Was spending WAY too much money between that and aquariums.

 

[Greybeard]

I also collected guns, but I just had to tap the brakes on it.

I'm not a gun collector. I'm a shooter. Recreational, NRA certified instructor, competitive shooter, etc. I will give you one fact... Aquarium stuff falls dramatically in value, quickly. Used gear in this hobby sells cheap, if it sells at all. I bought a 250w DE halide pendent with an electronic ballast, brand new, for a tank that I ended up tearing down. I used it for maybe a month. Tried to sell it for 1/3 new price, no takers. I eventually hung it over the workbench in my shop, where it does an excellent job :) Guns, on the other hand... Buy good quality, take decent care of it, and it'll likely always be worth near what you paid for it... or more. Guns don't cost money, they're an investment.

Ammo. Ammo costs money. Lots of it :)

 

[Waters]

Flip it upside down and let it level itself out

I can't.....the bend is so bad things roll to both sides :) I put weights on it over night and it just sprung back to that lol.

 

[hatfielj]

I'm not a gun collector. I'm a shooter. Recreational, NRA certified instructor, competitive shooter, etc. I will give you one fact... Aquarium stuff falls dramatically in value, quickly. Used gear in this hobby sells cheap, if it sells at all. I bought a 250w DE halide pendent with an electronic ballast, brand new, for a tank that I ended up tearing down. I used it for maybe a month. Tried to sell it for 1/3 new price, no takers. I eventually hung it over the workbench in my shop, where it does an excellent job :) Guns, on the other hand... Buy good quality, take decent care of it, and it'll likely always be worth near what you paid for it... or more. Guns don't cost money, they're an investment.

Ammo. Ammo costs money. Lots of it :)

Don't fool yourself into believing your hobby is "an investment." Most of the time they aren't even close.
An investment should be able to at least beat inflation. Guns rarely do this. Sure, maybe if you bought a colt python back when they were still making them, it would have grown in value, but most of the time that never happens. If you sell it for what you paid for it, you LOST money on it. If you buy a gun for $1000 today and sell it 15 years from now for $1000, that $1000 is going to have less buying power than it has today. It needs to grow by about 2% per year just to keep up with inflation. But, do they hold some value? Sure. Some more than others. They're not an investment though. You'd be much better off spending $1000 on a shares of VTSAX (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund) if you wanted to invest in something;) But, hobbies are fun and it's fun to have something to spend money on so there's nothing wrong with it.

High quality reef aquarium equipment does a pretty good job holding it's value though. You can get a decent percentage of your money back from selling used equipment, IF it's quality equipment. The cheap stuff doesn't hold it's value.

 

[Zeal]

I love how almost everyone is constrained by their wife.

Happy wife happy life!

 

[mch1984]

As far my wife goes, she is pretty easy on the tank hobby. She has a couple of rules but they are easy one to follow lol. Mostly they just have to look nice, and i have to make sure stands, cabinets and other pieces match the room some what. As far as storage I actually just worked on it last week. I basically took over a shelf in the laundry room. Went to target and bought some storage containers and did some labeling and some organizing. Rest of the equipment is under the tanks being used. Then I have an electronics cabinet that sits beside the tank its self. I have moved some things around since the pics but you get the idea.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I was ordering some B-Ionic from Marine Depot the other day, and stumbled across their pre-printed reef system cable labels :)

I haven't put them in place yet, but I did get a sheet of them. What else can you get in this hobby for $5?

https://www.marinedepot.com/Marine_...essories-Marine_Depot-MD5174-FITEMOAC-vi.html

Too funny. I am heading out of town again and since my mother and a new home sitter (dogs and tanks and plants) will be doing it this year, I just got done making tons of labels for every cord and piece of equipment and the outlet they go into. So matching up is easy if need to unplug. I just printed the labels off on my printer, covered front and back with packing tape and used tape to attach to cables. So far so good and will not get wet as easily.

Oh, and I am the wife in my case. Hubby is pretty non-plussed about what I do. I am more picky than he, so that works.

 

[jsker]

Love the bi-fold louvered doors. Mine is dual sliding mirrored doors. I'd _love_ to be able to open both doors at once. Maybe I'll look into replacing them.

I am thinking of replacing mine with either a half louvered door with a panel on the bottom or full louvered to match my flooring. Look at the home improvement stores, they should have louvered doors to fit unless it is an odd size door.

 

[Greybeard]

...and I am the wife in my case. Hubby is pretty non-plussed about what I do. I am more picky than he, so that works.

That seems to be the norm, in that the wife is more picky about how things look than the husband. Unusual that the wife would be the reefer, though. Unfortunate, but true. I've never really understood why. Go to an event on freshwater aquarium, even the more technical and expensive planted tanks, and you'll find just as many women as you will men. I've never really understood why the same is not true regarding reef aquarium, but it obviously isn't.

 

[mch1984]

That seems to be the norm, in that the wife is more picky about how things look than the husband. Unusual that the wife would be the reefer, though. Unfortunate, but true. I've never really understood why. Go to an event on freshwater aquarium, even the more technical and expensive planted tanks, and you'll find just as many women as you will men. I've never really understood why the same is not true regarding reef aquarium, but it obviously isn't.

They are smart enough to save their money.

 

[Medic58]

I want a QT tank but after spending so much money just getting started cant imagine dropping another $300 on a QT tank.. Gonna have to wait. And not sure where ill put it.

I was thinking about buying shelves for the my products but I wont want my cat jumping on em.

Go on Craig list and buy a good used 10 gallon set up for 30 bucks and set up a qt. Just fill it with your water change water and you will be in business for 30 bucks. 300 bucks Will be an awesome qt.

 

[AdamNC]

For now stuffed in the corner on my loft.

 

[alex.mccann99]

Amazing how much crap we can accumulate just to maintain our tanks. My Fish corner is always a mess in my office, my wife hates it. I keep telling her, "let me upgrade it to a bigger rank with this awesome cabinet system I want and it will be so much cleaner". She's not falling for it yet.

 

[Zeal]

Go on Craig list and buy a good used 10 gallon set up for 30 bucks and set up a qt. Just fill it with your water change water and you will be in business for 30 bucks. 300 bucks Will be an awesome qt.

Wait... I can use the water change want for a QT? That's a great idea actually

 

[Zeal]

Amazing how much crap we can accumulate just to maintain our tanks. My Fish corner is always a mess in my office, my wife hates it. I keep telling her, "let me upgrade it to a bigger rank with this awesome cabinet system I want and it will be so much cleaner". She's not falling for it yet.

Love that stand. You make it?

 

[reefruss]

I just finished, today, my project of moving my sump (and expanding it) to the garage below my tank. It's 10'-3" tall and 5' wide, I made it look nice to keep my wife happy.

 

[kanders87]

I love how almost everyone is constrained by their wife.

Happy wife happy life!

That’s when it pays to be the wife Hubby doesn’t say much, as he has his own expensive hobbies. He tolerates my tanks because I enjoy them, as I tolerate his vehicle obsession because it makes him happy.