Oh Now I've got you.
Thanks
(Wow edited)
Oh Now I've got you.
Thanks
(Wow edited)
Chad
Doesn't anyone else have any input on advisable minimum clearness or anything else?
Everyone will have their own perspective based on their equipment, space constraints, and personal preferences.
My cabinet is currently being built - but here is the process I went through.
I have a 120 DT - 4x2x2 - with a custom built stand and canopy. It sits against a wall in a main living area of the house - and takes up just about the entire wall. That wall is also structural, supporting the 2nd floor and a stairway behind it (so no options of putting the panel in an adjacent closet, etc.
That said, our decision was to have an add on cabinet built by the same person that built our stand. It will be as deep as the existing stand, mimic the same trim/door style, same top as the canopy, but sit slightly lower than the top of the stand. The stand has a 3" banding trim around the top and bottom edges, and the top of the new add on cabinet will sit just below that trim. The new cabinet will open to the long side of the add on cabinet (parallel to the side of the existing stand).
So, I had a number of constraints for my footprint.
The equipment I want to mount in the add on cabinet includes -
2 EB832s
3 expansion modules (WXM, AWM, FMM)
2 Eco Tech drivers
2 heater controllers
Reef Octopus skimmer pump controller
Cor 20 controller
Apex EL
Staying in my stand will be
PM2
Tunze ATO controller
Apex Break Out Box
Being added to my stand will be
2 DOS (and DDRs)
I'm replacing my sump and redoing my rigid plumbing in the stand - keeping things that include liquid in the stand, and moving everything else out. Exceptions were the PM2 to keep the salinity probe cable away from all of the other cords and the BOB since I use it for the skimmer cup float and a magnet switch on the stand for a stand light and it uses the I/O port on the PM2. The Tunze ATO controller is isolated to things in the stand, so I'm leaving it there too. If/when that fails (it's 10 years old and still running), I'll have room for a 2nd FMM in the add on cabinet.
The footprint of the add-on cabinet is roughly 12 deep and 26 wide - which isn't a very big cabinet. Similar to your approach, the cabinet will have a false back - more centered to the depth of the cabinet. This will allow me to mount gear on the front side of that false back, and have a cavity for the misc mess of cables behind the fall wall. At this point, I don't plan to mount the power bricks to the back - but that is an option I'll revisit when I have the cabinet and start working with the cables.
With the various setbacks for trim, etc, the interior of the cabinet will be 5" deep in front of the false back, and 4" behind. The 5" in front was key - as that is the depth I wanted to allow me to mount the expansion modules to interior SIDE of the cabinet. Only 1 of the expansion modules (FMM) will have wires that leave the cabinet - the other 2 just connect with aquabus cables - so cable management isn't a big deal for those being on the side. And because I'm mounting my EB832s on the front side of the false back, that 5" depth felt good to allow me to have the distance needed to deal with plugs and wiring to the EB832s.
Then, the front of the false back will have 3 rows of gear-
COR 20 controller, Apex EL, EB832
Heater controllers, EB832
EcoTech drivers, skimmer controller
And I planned to share and consolidate wire grommets as much as I could - using oval grommets to give me a bit more access room without taking up more top to bottom space.
I made templates of all of my gear, added spacing for wire management, ventilation, etc. and worked with those to verify how I would lay this out, and what size cabinet would work (photo attached - but not sure if I got the uploaded image orientated correctly). I also tracked down the oval grommets from Amazon so that I could get those to include when planning this out.
This is my current tank. It will change with my upgrade though.
20190921_150753.jpg
This 18" x 24" glass front cabinet is $75 on Amazon.
20210120_141441.jpg
"Elegant Home Fashion Avery Wall Mounted Cabinet Wooden Bathroom Kitchen Storage Above Space Saver with 2 Tempered Glass Doors 2 Adjustable Shelves, Oil Oak" @ Amazon
I like the use of the rack mounted power bar that was used in post #54. I looked up the Eliminator E107 and found that it had very good review but it was pretty deep, 6 inches front to back.
I think that I want to put 1 or 2 rack mounted power bars in the top of my cabinet.
I looked around and found the following alternatives that in the high 4 inches to 5. Even at that, I will probably have to leave the depth on my design as it is.
The following are what I found.
(These licks are just want I saw in an initial search. There are probably better or cheaper places to buy them.)
EliminatorE107.jpg
https://www.eliminatorlighting.com/pl07-e107
xstatic-pc10usb.jpg
https://www.idjnow.com/xstatic-10-pl...itioner.html#1technical_pro_surge9.jpg
https://www.tpro.com/products/surge9
Optimization-ps9u.jpg
https://www.tpro.com/products/ps9Technical Pro PS17U.jpg
https://www.idjnow.com/technical-pro...er-center.html
I am leaning toward the single row blue switches.
Does anyone have any other possibilities that I could consider?
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