There are aquarium stands, tank canopies, and then there is fine, furniture-grade aquarium cabinets. The Palatium 280 is a fully fledged aquarium support system that has been built for the ground up specifically to be the best possible aquarium cabinet known to man.
The Palatium 280 is one such cabinet, but there’s so much more than meets the eye with this structure. The fine handcrafted woodwork that you see on the outside is actually supported by a fully featured aluminum frame made of T-slot fittings, also known as 80/20 in the aquarium world.
This particular model has been designed by Cayuga Aquatics to support a 280 gallon glass aquarium, but it uses extra thick 3 inch by 6 inch beams for the length in order to forego additional support beams in the center which would obstruct some of the access to the under tank filtration such as sumps, skimmers etc.
With the frame of the Palatium 280 fully skinned, you can see that the ‘ground floor’ is divided into three primary sections. The center section being for the more obvious wet working equipment is flanked to the right by a smaller area for storing dosing pumps, dosing containers, tops off and the like.
Meanwhile to the left, a completely isolated section is intended for electrical equipment, and the separate dry space will help to prevent moisture from corroding electronic devices such as controllers, power bars etc. Both sections are vented, with the electrical compartment allowing fresh air to keep the electronics cool, and the wet working areas being able to be vented to cut down on humidity and moisture buildup, perhaps even through the use of ducting to vent this wet, salty air outside the home.
The coup de grace for the Palatium 280 is a fully articulated light hood system which articulates upwards automatically with the press of a button. As you’d expect the lighting space is fully equipped with vents to keep all the lights cool, with plenty of mounting options for your choice of T5, LED, metal halide lighting, or a combination thereof.
The whole aquarium support system of the Palatium 280 is clad in finely crafted curled cherry wood, but there’s another unit made of bold mahogany wood. The Palatium 280 stands by Cayuga Aquatics are the ‘DreamStands’ to RoyalExclusiv’s DreamBox sumps, and we would love to see these two devices paired up for the ultimate luxury reef aquarium system.
By now it’s abundantly clear that if you have to ask how much the Palatium 280 aquarium cabinet stand costs, you totally can’t afford it, and neither can we; Nevertheless, there’s nothing preventing the intrepid do-it-yourselfer from incorporating many of the smart system design ideas of the Palatium 280.
