Cabinet Installation
I broke my rule straight up - I didn’t take any photos of the cabinet being put together. What I can do is stress how easy it is.
The cabinet is solid and heavy, there is no other way to explain it. It comes completely flat packed and well protected to avoid scratches, but the finish is actually quite tough if not abused. We laid out the cardboard from the packaging anyway just in case, but it would be fine to do on carpet or a rug. The best I can do is liken it a really high quality Ikea cabinet in terms of how it is put together - but the instructions are about as clear as an Ikea cabinet. While the pictures are good and the steps fairly simple, not one piece is labelled and you rely on matching the holes to the layout on the back sheet to determine which side is being used. Not difficult, just something to note if you are not at all inclined to building this sort of thing. One trick we did pick up is to align the rubber mats to help determine which way each side faced.
Just on that, the cabinet comes with a fully lined sump section, with 5mm rubber/foam used. It also has a similar layer that’s a tad thicker right across the top of the cabinet for the tank to rest on. I wasn’t expecting this and was quite impressed with how neat it looks. I expect the sump part will dramatically reduce small vibrations from the skimmer and return pump.
In the 350 model, the cabinet is split into two sections by a solid wall. The sump side has a small cut out in both the back and top of the cabinet that can be seen in the photo above and allows the bulkheads extend below the glass of the tank. The last section has a partial back wall that is 60% open and is quite roomy ~39cm wide, which is enough to fit a standard 20/25L drum with room to spare. My only concern is the solid joining wall. If I want to mount power boards and controllers in the side section, the cables have to be long enough to extend along the side, out and up across ~15cm and then in the gap in the sump section and down to the sump. Probes and heaters are my main concern as these tend to be shorter leads and I personally am not a fan of mounting expensive controllers above an open sump.
The doors are neat, well sized and with decent hinges. Mounting them solo could be challenging, but it was easy with a second set of hands. Fine adjustments are also really easy and worth spending time on, just note that if you align the back edge of the doors with the edge of the cabinet you will end up with a sizeable gap in the middle (~4-5mm). It's not huge but you can see the sump and any lights will definitely be visible. The other surprise when I saw it in the shop, was that it has no door handles. Rather it uses a spring loaded mechanism to open the doors which I love, but so do the kids!
About the only thing that I felt wasn’t quite up to spec considering the quality of the unit is the plastic 'feet' that it came with. Due to the nature of them, they are not 100% the same and slightly uneven. I would have thought at this price they would have used adjustable feet, and I did consider not using them at all and just rest the tank on the tiles directly, but the floor was level enough to not require this.
All in all, an amazing bit of kit and well thought out. I reckon it took all of 30mins to put together with my Wife using only a screwdriver, not to mention 'help' from a 2 and 4 yr old :cool:
