bronzefighter
Member
What do you guys to to manage all the wires and plugs and strips and crap? Any tips or tricks to help out? I hate having so much crap tucked away into such a rats nest of cords.
Wire Management
- Thread starter bronzefighter
- Start date
Zip ties, twisty ties, tape, power strip city... I particularly like power strips. I put all the heaters on one strip, the filters on another, and the lights on a third. Then when I do water changes, I power off the heaters/filters while keeping the lights on. At night, I power off the lights on all tanks with the one strip. The reason this really helps is that without the power strips, I'd be plugging and unplugging everything, every water change, making the mess worse every week. I've got some ideas for optimizing things, but I'm holding them off for my next move.
Airlines are another thing I don't have a satisfactory solution for yet...
Airlines are another thing I don't have a satisfactory solution for yet...
A
Anonymous
Guest
lol, nice topic. Seems with my systems I can make them nice and pretty but everything becomes disarray over time due to equipment change, moving stuff during annual maintenance , ect. I do use zip ties. Power strips are mounted up & under stands when possible but it is a "rats nest" under my 140 where there is 2 tanks. I was contemplating marking power cords with tape and write on each what they go to because every time I switch a power head or change a light fixture I have to trace the cord to the power soarce.
my cords are tied up about 3" above the plug so there are none lying on the ground and they're all plugged into a powerstrip I can flip off for wc, though that means I have no lights on. I would love to do what MrTom does with all the lights on a separate strip XD but I also keep track of what has been fed according to if it has a light on still or not...
cichlid-gal
New Member
We also have everything on power strips. Our power strips are mounted either one the back of the cabinets or up under the cabinets but not on the floor space in them. Lights are either plugged in to the remaining open plug on the wall (as most of our plugs are double plugs) or plugged into a seperate strip so that at water change time we can power off everything except the lights.
Identifying the various plugs in the strips...well...we need a label machine for that or color coded somethings...LOL. It's on my list of things to do but I havent' gotten there yet.
Identifying the various plugs in the strips...well...we need a label machine for that or color coded somethings...LOL. It's on my list of things to do but I havent' gotten there yet.
The idea came to me in college, where we used old beer bottle labels to do this Well having 19 tanks I cant afford to just tie wrap all the wires. Its may become necessary to unplug something. SO I use wire labeling to mark each tank.
http://www.cabletiesandmore.com/customizeTies.php
I use Black cloth tie-wraps to get it to power strip and use multi color plastic zipties to help me know if its a heater, airpump, filter, ect
http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Plastic-Cable-Ties-Assorted-Sizes-1000-pack-50724/203724433#
and...
http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-6-in-Fabric-Cable-Ties-6-Pieces-18157/203713254#
http://www.cabletiesandmore.com/customizeTies.php
I use Black cloth tie-wraps to get it to power strip and use multi color plastic zipties to help me know if its a heater, airpump, filter, ect
http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Plastic-Cable-Ties-Assorted-Sizes-1000-pack-50724/203724433#
and...
http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-6-in-Fabric-Cable-Ties-6-Pieces-18157/203713254#
A
Anonymous
Guest
This goOd idea, me like!Chiisai said: