[Church]

In true Church fashion, I've always stored all of my aquarium supplies just anywhere they were out of the way. You know, a box here, a bucket there, a hook hanging here, food over there, ferts inside this, dechlorinator inside that... etcetera.

Now that I am moving I have decided to consolidate all my stuff, and FINALLY have it all accessible from one convenient location. I eventually decided on using a nice-sized tacklebox, like you know for fishing. That way I can keep everything organized, from plant weights, to aquascaping tools, to fertilizers and measuring spoons. It's cool, it has the flip up trays so that I can have everything right at my disposal while feeding, ferting, cleaning, whatever... and it's meant to get wet, so no worries about water damage!

But the whole process of brainstorming and choosing how I would organize my things made me wonder...

How do YOU store or organize your stuff?

 

[redfalconf35]

I have one of those plastic organizer drawers dedicated to my aquarium. The top drawer is food and testing supplies. The middle drawer is CO2 and fish catching supplies. The bottom drawer is ferts and misc. hardware.

 

[isu712]

I've got one tank on a stand-alone cupboard you can get from target and I've got all my supplies on the shelves in there. So it's all conveniently located right under the tank.

 

[gheitman]

I've got two tanks with enclosed wood stands that I store a lot of stuff plus I have a wooden TV tray (mainly for foods and ferts plus gravel underneath) and then there is a shelf in the bathroom for sponge filters (and replacement sponges), siphons, driftwood, spare heaters, etc.

 

[Tex Gal]

I guess I have too much stuff! The only thing I keep under my tank is food, nets, and a couple liquid ferts. Extra rocks, filter equip and misc pieces, filter media, etc... are in a cabinet area.

 

[mott]

I keep EVERYTHING under the hood!

 

[DevinWolfe]

At home everything is just randomly tossed onto a metal bookshelf sitting next to the tank. The filter sits on the top shelf right next to the tank and my 5.5G shrimp tank is next to it.

At work everything is packed neatly into a small box that is placed out of sight. I need to be sure everything at the office is clean cut so that no one can complain.

 

[Wasserpest]

I store all food items in a door compartment in the freezer. I don't have that much, just a few dry foods, some frozen cubes, and frozen insects for the ABF's. Keeps the kids from snacking. :eek5:

All the other stuff is somewhat organized inside the stand. It looks a bit like Motts, but with bigger tanks you get more space underneath, so it is less crowded. Right now I am working on a drawer chest that will take up one quarter of my ~6ft stand, and hopefully keep maintenance equipement, fertilizers, test kits, etc organized.

I use properly labeled baby-food glass containers to house all the small things like airline connectors, rubber suckers, O-rings, check valves, orphaned tubing pieces, plant weights etc. Nets, brushes, and algae scrapers hang on the doors.

Larger things like spare canister tubing, buckets and such are stored in the garage.

 

[whickerda]

My crap's all over the house and the wife ain't too happy about it. We're looking for a bigger place so if things work out we'll have more room. Of course bigger tank shopping goes hand-in-hand with bigger house shopping.:thumbsup:

 

[Moe]

I keep my supplies under my two aquarium stands.

 

[cah925]

Originally I was keeping everything in my coat closet just behind the tanks. One day my mom comes over and opens the door, everything just about fell out. She suggested I get one of those outdoor storage bins from Lowes/Home Depot. They were fairly cheap so I got one and now I use it for just about everything tank related - all my hoses, extra equipment, filters, filter media, leftovers from multiple projects, etc.

 

[Church]

This thread is interesting to me. Keep 'em coming guys! I would especially like to hear what those of you who do aquarium maintenance for a living do.

 

[deleted_user_9]

I use the corner lazy susan cabinet in the kitchen for the bottles and accessories, and the stuff that can hang up (nets and tubing) hangs in the utility closet in the kitchen. All my tanks are close enough that it's pretty convenient. Of course, once I start a tank upstairs in my office, that theory goes out the window.

 

[bradac56]

I have two long shelves in the fish-room that I keep dry goods on like food, medicine, ferts, pumps, parts. I also have a free standing island cabinet in the middle of the room that I work off of that has my electric scale, graduated cylinders, bunsen burner, etc.

- Brad

 

[lauraleellbp]

ONE tackle box? Seriously? LOL

I've taken over our entire coat closet (stacked with shelves), I've got several old stands out in the garage, several currently unused tanks up on the shelf in the laundry room (my QT tank is there most of the time), a whole shelf in the freezer just for frozen foods, a table in my office covered with misc supplies (plus several boxes under the table), all the area under my tank stands stuffed with supplies...

And, I'm pretty sure I actually USE most of it, at least once a year... :help:

 

[jreich]

the stuff i dont use on a regualr i just use one of them big plastic storage bins and throw it in my junk room. yes i have a room filled with junk.

 

[Church]

ONE tackle box? Seriously? LOL

Hehe, well I did have to dismantle my 45g which leaves me with only a 10g and a 2.5g. Not like I really need much space for things, lol. But the thing is, since all my tanks are small now, the space inside the cabinets is just not enough. At least not for the Big Al's stands I use.

Yeah, I find that a toolbox gives me plenty of room for all my tools (like scissors, tweezers, plant weights, etc.) while also allowing me to keep everything separated into their own little compartments. And I have easy access to it all when I open it up and the 3 trays move into position. The only things I can't put in there (yet) are the bottles of Prime and Excel, because I would have to lay them on their sides, and those bottles aren't meant for that (they leak). I suppose I could have gotten a deeper tackle box, but it's fine for now.

What I plan on doing is ordering some type of small, completely seal-able jars that have pipettes built into the lids, and transferring the liquid supplements into those. I know I've seen what I'm talking about at chemistry supply places. Think of, like, medicine jars with the droppers built into the cap, only slightly larger, and graduated, that sort of thing.

I now will be taking care of 3 aquariums in my current house, plus 1 over at my now-ex-girlfriend's place, and potentially another one at my recording studio. So I need to be able to bring my stuff with me wherever I go.

 

[RipariumGuy]

My stuff is scattered EVERYWHERE in the room my aquarium is in!

 

[pasully]

I bought three base cabinets and a formica top and screwed them to the wall in the corner of my fish room and installed the top and put a sink and faucet in with a small R/O system underneath the sink cabinet. The ready made cabinets are fairly inexpensive and very easy to install. I now have tons of room to store my all my aquarium stuff in a relatively small area. The countertop makes a great work area, or at least it did until I filled it up with aquariums.

 

[bradac56]

What I plan on doing is ordering some type of small, completely seal-able jars that have pipettes built into the lids, and transferring the liquid supplements into those. I know I've seen what I'm talking about at chemistry supply places. Think of, like, medicine jars with the droppers built into the cap, only slightly larger, and graduated, that sort of thing.

Take a look at { http://stores.shop.ebay.com/ale-lab-equipment-outlet__W0QQ_armrsZ1 } he has just about everything you need for a good lab setup.

- Brad