Anyone take pride in "clean" looking cord setup?

[JamesR]

I was wondering if anyone really concentrated on their cord/wiring work. We spend so much time on the inside of the tank, what about all the cords hanging from the back............

I see lots of pictures with cords just hanging around and a mess, others have the power strips mounted and the cords ziptied together, looking "clean and neat".

Just curious, as my 125 is kind of a mess.................yet the nano i just bought and am setting up will be very neat (i hope).

Jim

[youronlysin]

Its funny you mention that. Everytime I set up a tank I always think about the darn mess of cords and hoses. Although mine is kind of a mess right now, It always crosses my mind that I need to do something about it. I do always put some kind background on my tanks so you cant see the mess behind the tank, but I still need to do some work under the stand....I need to make doors for it when I get the chance, that will help a lot.

[JamesR]

I am going to utilize the black zip ties to kep things from hanging everywhere. I also have marked the cords by the plug end with a piece of tape and the name of what it runs. I have my Skimmer marked, so that when i pull the plug to take it out and clean it, i know which one it is (just helps a bit) as I have soooo many plugs.

Jim

[Salttanker]

You know...there is no reason why mine should look like this. I have the necessary tools to make it look better, but have failed to do so. I even have a label maker so I will know what cord goes with what.

Mike

[Florida8]

I'm a neat cord person... all cords are tied in a neat loop on everything in the house.. LOL... but not once have a thought about labeling the cords... tomorrow I will have to tell the hubby no more "Honey, stand right there and tell me this goes off..." Gosh, he'll be a happy happy man!

warmly,
Kimberly

[PatM]

Thats just what I said...clean and neat. I started my new tank 2 months ago with all the cords wire tied neatly in back. Then I moved one thing around, then another, now it's back to spaghetti behind the tank. I have to unplug 6 cords just to find what I'm looking for. I wish it had stay the way it started, but it's whats in the tank that counts, right?

[Frank_the_Tank]

I've got the cords zip tied and labeled

[midiman]

It's on my list of things to do, I promise!!

[lando]

Well mine is a great big mess and never seems to get better. I wave two powerstrips, two timers and about 10 plug in down there. I figure it is all concealed in the stand so i am not too mworried about it. I do, hoever, have all my cords labeled so I know what is what.

[cmor1701d]

I'm 50/50. The powerheads going to the wavemaker strip are neat but not labeled. Return pump, lighting, heaters are labeled but not neat. The protein skimmer is both

I know that one day all of the cords will be both neat and labeled. I expect that to last about one day!

[SquishyFish]

Perfect timing! I spent an hour last weekend hanging power strips on the inside wall of my stand, using the "tape" method to label all the plugs, organizing the different types of plugs (lighting, power heads, pumps) into their own power strips. I installed touch lights in the stand so I didnt have to keep using a flash light. And...I zip tied everything! I was so proud of it I had to show my wife!

My next project is to build two curios to stand flush against the Tank. Inside the "cabinet" part of it, I am going to use peg board as backing. That way, all the little clutter that usually just gets thrown in a box can be hung up just like at the LFS.

[PatM]

Nice, peg board inside is a great idea.

[JamesR]

I like the touch light idea, never thought of that.
Jim

[Joemama16341]

I agree with the neat look but the problem I run into is if you zip tie all your cords then everytime you need to take something off you have to cut all the zip ties. I need to take my lights off periodically for cleaning and with them zip tied I can't do it without cutting the ties. I am going to upgrade to the velcro things.

[SquishyFish]

Thanks!

If you want to tie them together untill you get the velcro straps, try the old garbage bag style zip ties. They open and close pretty easily.

[Clown Monarch]

I once decided to make the wiring nice (on my old PC). I carefully zip-tied all wiring together into a "harness".

Then one day I decided to move something. I had to rip apart the entire mess, cut up electrical tape etc. It took the same amount of time to remove my cleanliness as it did to create it in the first place.

So now I just leave it as a huge tangled mess - it's much more efficient that way.