UPDATE 5-12-16
It's been a while since the last update but I have been busy.
This build is taking a couple interesting turns and it hasn't even gotten wet yet.
For one, I decided to redo the equipment board... for a couple reasons.
The main thing though was there was just something about it that wasn't sitting right with me. I think it was the lack of access to behind it. This didn't bother me originally, but once I placed the sump in the tank, I realized how little room there was. The sump is very large, taking up most of the interior of the stand. The left end of the sump was mere inches from the equipment mounted on the board, particularly the GHL Power Bars.
I had mentioned earlier that I wasn't fond of the "Panduit" electrical raceways that many people use because they take up valuable space, and I also just wasn't particularly keen on looking at all those big bars running up, down and across.
I hope the owner doesn't mind, but here is just a random example from a google image search showing what I mean...
Now don't get me wrong, this is a very nice example of cable management and everything is nice and tidy and clean looking.
But I just don't have a lot of space to play with.
So after some thinking, it finally dawned on me... what if I just ran the raceways around the perimeter? They would almost disappear in comparison. I also realized I don't have all that much equipment that needs to be mounted, for instance... it's not like I have a bunch of Apex modules. Most everything I need for my Profilux is part of the Profilux computer itself, which is sitting on that shelf I made. So I went to the computer and started laying it out. After a little playing around, spec'ing 2"x2" raceways around the perimeter, everything fit! I found the plastic ones on amazon and ordered two 5' lengths. They arrived early this week.
And while I was waiting for the raceways to arrive, and needed to tear everything out. All the equipment had to be removed from the board, the board had to be removed from the supports, and I had to go out and buy another piece of wood that I could cut down, paint and remount.
So I'm walking around Home Depot and I come across something PERFECT that I didn't see last time. They had 2'x4' sheets of 3/4" particle board with white melamine laminate!!! I wasn't going to be drilling holes through this and the white melamine would match the stand perfectly! No painting required. And it was quite a bit cheaper than the plywood. Bonus!
Changing to this 3/4 material vs the 1/2" plywood had one downside... i was already tight on room in the stand. But since I wasn't going to be hiding all my wires behind the board this time, I removed the supports and cut them down, making up more than the 1/4" in space. Bonus again. Then I remounted the supports. By now the raceways had come in so I cut and mounted those around the perimeter, did a test fit/layout of all my equipment, and then mounted the board to the supports. Finally I was able to start mounting all the equipment and running the cables.
The pic below shows the almost final product.
I still have some stuff to mount in the middle area which I'll talk about in my next update, so the rear vertical raceway cover is not on yet.
And I won't be using the raceways for my sump items like skimmer, heaters, and carbon reactor.
I want to be able to unplug and remove these items easily for not if, but when the sump ever needs to be drained and removed. Again, I'm tight on space so any major work in the stand may require sump removal. These wires will still be neatly secured, just a lot more accessible.
The Vectra return pump is the only sump item going into the raceway.
Oh, and I also hung the refugium light.
As far as plumbing goes, I'm starting laying it out but waiting for a couple last minute little things to arrive from BRS today, and Elos next week.
But the plan is to have the tank wet by next weekend!
So here's where I am now.
There's still some exciting things to come, but that's for the next update.
