Calling All Cord Management Experts

[greg683x]

I included some pics of my set up to further illustrate what Im talking about a bit


Im looking for some help in redoing the cords in my fishroom and I have a couple of a roadblocks that Im working through that Im wondering how some folks who have their cords and equipment all neat and tidy managed to address.

My fish room is pretty small, right now all the outlets and power I have provided is the room with the tank. Ideally Id like to have all the power located in the room on the other side wall opposite of the tank, which is a laundry room.

So I have a couple of problems and concerns when it comes to relocating these wires to nearby rooms like some folks have with their set up, or even if Im going to keep the power in the tiny fish room and create a panel with a false bottom to hide cords and such.

- What do you guys do with equipment that have tiny cords??? My BRS dosers and to an extent, my heater have tiny cords and I need to keep them on the side of the sump thats opposite of my power panel. Do you guys just have extension cords tied up to make up the distance?? Im not a huge fan of that.

- What do you all do with the annoying transformer boxes we have on equipment such as led lights and vortechs?? You know, the little 3x6" black boxes. Those things are annoying placed halfway into the run of the cord. Where do you stuff those?

Thats mainly it for my problems. I personally like using the In-Use weatherproof coverings for my outlets, but some might consider that overkill, especially considering its protected with a GFI breaker, but I know electrical inspectors would still require it.

The problem is mainly cord length to accommodate the run to this organized locating. I look at some folks pictures with the organized cord set ups that are sometimes in a different room and Im wondering if whats not shown in the pictures are extension cords tucked behind the sump or in a wall, etc. Id also have a problem stuffing all these transfomers, extension cord connections, etc behind a wood panel with a false bottom just because theres a lot that can go wrong there in a tight combustible space that you cant see visually at all.

Perhaps Im too cautious, either way, Id love to be enlightened. Pics of your setup too would be great

 

[Esh1]

I think we've all sat there at some point and spent an entire weekend organizing cords. Overtime with experience you start to see how if you don't have everything planned out from the start you have to start finding ways to fit everything in. One thing that's worked well for me are cable ties. I found some velcro straps from the electrical section of a local hardware store and they've helped a for bundling wires together. I've also tried to organize them in a way that I have pumps in one group, and sensors in another.

Another thing that worked well was mapping everything out on paper. This way you can easily visualize every thing you need to plug in, then draw through different ideas. Once you have it mapped out, don't forget to double check cord lengths. Your best plan could easily get ruined once you find out the cord doesnt reach. I think I'm currently running into this with the shutoff valve from my Co2 tank.

I've a 90gallon, and every inch under my stand is taken up with my sump, refugium, and calcium reactor. All of the electrical is outside of the stand, in an old kitchen cabinet that I modified. It used to have 3 pull out drawers, however I removed the bottom 2 to hold a 10gallon aquarium for top off water, and the Neptune Apex DOS system for KH and MG. Above that, I have all of the electrical in a drawer, that technically could pull out, however with all of the cables going into it it no longer does.

I used a 2" circle bit to drill holes in the back of the cabinet and the drawer so I could route all the wires in. Since that is maxed with cables, I had to add a second hole through the back of the cabinet later on. Attached to the back of the cabinet with velcro, are my MP40 controllers, and then the dosing pump.

I've added a few modules since this photo, but this photo is looking top down. the old kitchen counter top lifts off the top so I can easily access this. I also added a knob to the cabinet surface so additional heat could easily vent from the cabinet.
IMG_0158 by E, on Flickr

Something else I never thought Id have to figure out is making sure all of my gear was within my wifi coverage. The electrical cabinet is to the right of the tank as its just in range of my wifi. I was having issues with the reeflink over wifi for the EcoTech gear and ended up running network cables through the basement to hardwire it. The Apex still works fine on wifi.

Last, power back ups is another thing years ago I never thought of. Currently I have a battery backup for 1 of my MP40s, but am considering some sort of larger battery to add to the home specifically for the tank later on, though Im going to wait until I finish my basement and upgrade to a larger tank.