Media Cabinets as Reef Lockers

Using a media cabinet for a reef locker can work out great to hide the ever-growing glacier of apparatus that inevitably surrounds a reef aquarium. The one I found at Sears pictured here was ideal for my needs as it fits a 5 gallon Kent Aqua Dose reservoir perfectly. All I did was take the thickest piece of wood I could find and screw it as the middle shelf with 3 inch wood screws. This move insures no warp from the water weight and strengthened the whole cabinet. A small notch with a jig saw allows the doser lines to run through.More details below.





I mounted all electrical above the shelf for safety. Power strip is mounted outside back of the cabinet. Bottom shelf does not have anything electrical and middle shelf has gaps in front and back so water would spill down and not collect. To do: buy the mounting bracket for the doser so I can mount it off the shelf to prevent damage from a reservoir water leak.







I came up with this siphon method to fill reservoir safely. They hold the same amount so I can't overfill and not moving the reservoir prevents stress on fittings.

That said, I think it looks great and I child-proof the whole thing with a child lock on the knobs. Sure looks better than the cable monster that was there before and a lot safer.

TIP: I found this cabinet by searching for the dimensions I needed to hold my reservoir by putting the dimensions in the search box of sites like Sears, Target, Kmart, etc. (In my case: 25W x 12 D x 39 H) This helped a lot. Make sure there is enough height in the cabinet from the shelf to the top for your reservoir.

Link to this media cabinet:
Sears: Online department store featuring appliances, tools, fitness equipment and more

I love it. I hope this helps with your reef mess.

matt

 

Thank you sir!

 

Very clean looking! I love clean looking

 

Very nice set up.. I'm going to be doing the same thing soon as my dinning room table is becoming the catch all of tank stuff and the misses does not like it one bit lol.

 

Well done Matt, beautiful setup.

 

Whats the metal box new to the refractometer?

 

Thanks and good luck! It's worth it.

Thank you!

My temp gun!

 

Haha that temp gun is awesome Matt!

 

Nice getup Matt!

I also use a large media cabinet for storing my supplies and chems,also done for child proofing with child saftey locks installed inside it,my youngest just turned two,so nothing is safe from him,likewise with the doors on my tank stand.The locks were installed the day he reprogrammed my light timer for me.