Aquarium volume pet peeve

[SashimiTurtle]

I completely understand the gap in "advertised gallons" and actual gallon capacity. Go check out a Red Sea tank and punch in the external dimentions in a water volume calculator. I'll go ahead and tell you that Red Sea already figured up the actual water capaticy of the tank when empty of rock and sand for you, and advertises this. To my knowledge, they are the only manufacturer that does this.

What I have a hard time with on my tank, SCA 90g "cube" with Trigger Sapphire 20 Cube sump, is it took just over two 44g brute cans to fill it to capacity. Does Brute also fib on the capacity of their cans? Is a 44 gallon can closer to 30 gallons?

I ask this because when figuring out my alk consumption with the new BRS pharma products, 30ml of disolved soda ash raised my dKH from 7.2 to 7.9dKH. I came to that test dose by punching in 90 gallons(just over two 44 gallon brutes) and then cutting by a little more than half to be safe. Using the calculator to "reverse engineer" my tank volume I came up with 60 gallons water volume.

 

[Brew12]

I completely understand the gap in "advertised gallons" and actual gallon capacity. Go check out a Red Sea tank and punch in the external dimentions in a water volume calculator. I'll go ahead and tell you that Red Sea already figured up the actual water capaticy of the tank when empty of rock and sand for you, and advertises this. To my knowledge, they are the only manufacturer that does this.

What I have a hard time with on my tank, SCA 90g "cube" with Trigger Sapphire 20 Cube sump, is it took just over two 44g brute cans to fill it to capacity. Does Brute also fib on the capacity of their cans? Is a 44 gallon can closer to 30 gallons?

I ask this because when figuring out my alk consumption with the new BRS pharma products, 30ml of disolved soda ash raised my dKH from 7.2 to 7.9dKH. I came to that test dose by punching in 90 gallons(just over two 44 gallon brutes) and then cutting by a little more than half to be safe. Using the calculator to "reverse engineer" my tank volume I came up with 60 gallons water volume.

Waterbox also advertises actual water volume. I wonder if they lose sales because people think the tanks are smaller than they actually are?

The thicker the glass, the more pronounced this becomes. Look at a standard 180 that is 72x24x24 assuming water 2" from the top

1/2" glass holds 152g
3/4" glass holds 145g

So what Redsea advertises as 145g other companies would list at 180g. Does this influence which tank people buy? ;Wideyed

 

[Gareth elliott]

Waterbox also advertises actual water volume. I wonder if they lose sales because people think the tanks are smaller than they actually are?

The thicker the glass, the more pronounced this becomes. Look at a standard 180 that is 72x24x24 assuming water 2" from the top

1/2" glass holds 152g
3/4" glass holds 145g

So what Redsea advertises as 145g other companies would list at 180g. Does this influence which tank people buy? ;Wideyed

The price tag of the redsea and water box aquariums decided this for me. Gorgeous tanks but tough sell. Lets not take a vacation with the bonus this year lets buy a glass box!

That said The new larger size waterbox aquariums might be in future, the price of piecing out the larger ones vs a glass-cages is closer to even, when including building a stand and a sump.

Side note
Lumber and tanks would so much easier to compare on international forums if they were always described in metric [emoji38]

 

[lapin]

What I have a hard time with on my tank, SCA 90g "cube" with Trigger Sapphire 20 Cube sump, is it took just over two 44g brute cans to fill it to capacity. Does Brute also fib on the capacity of their cans? Is a 44 gallon can closer to 30 gallons?

Are 5 gallons buckets 5 gallons?
http://wamas.org/forums/topic/75864-anyone-have-gallons-marked-on-their-brute/

 

[hatfielj]

Does anyone else wish tank volumes were listed more accurately? Personally, I feel the way tank volumes are listed is responsible for many reefers overestimating how much water they have in their systems.

For example, I have a "187g" system. It is 60"x30"x24". Take out around 25g for rock and sand and I should have 162g of water, right? Nope, that would be too easy.

My tank is 1/2" glass so the inside isn't 60" it is only 59"X29"x24". And of course, the water doesn't go to the top rim, it stops around 2" shy. I also have 1/2" glass on the bottom so the water fills a space that is 59"x29"x21.5"

It's only a small difference though, right? Um.. not really. It means my tank actually holds 156 gallons, not 187. Subtract the 25g for sand and rock and I'm closer to 131g total volume in the DT. And if your tank is made from 3/4" glass, the problem is even worse!

Does anyone not think the difference between 162g and 131g could cause dosing issues? Maybe for some products it won't matter. I can't help but think this causes a large amount of overdosing issues.


Ok.. rant off. Thanks for listening!

Yes this is all true, but very difficult to accurately calculate. SO, it's just easier to use the dimensions as a rough guide. When dosing things you just have to take into account that your system may not be quite as many gallons as your dimensions. However, it's really not all that critical to be 100% accurate with dosing. You have to be in the ballpark of course, but the difference between 250 gallons vs 220 gallons isn't THAT big of a deal. You just have to make sure you're monitoring whatever parameters you are dosing. That's more important really.

 

[KStatefan]

Either the person filing the suit was a total idiot or they were a greedy lawyer. Lumber sizing standardized across the industry. Of course if you look at really old houses, the 2x4's were actually 2" x 4", but it's probably been 100 years since that was the case.

Does anyone remember the old CRT TVs and monitors? a 13" TV did NOT have a 13" screen!

I just checked my 120. The internal dimensions are 47.25" long x 23.25" deep x 23.5" high for a total volume of 25,816 cubic inches or about 112 gallons. Now, if you take the external dimensions, 120 x 24 x 24, it comes out to exactly 120 gallons. I kind of view it like TV screens or Lumber. Regardless, you need to adjust for how full you have the tank, what you have in it, the volume of your half-full sump, etc, so in the end you can never assume anyway.

The Lowes lawsuit that was settled in 2014 was filed by district attorneys of several California counties

"A Marin County California judge ordered Mooresville, North Carolina-based Lowe’s to pay a $1.6 million settlement over a lawsuit alleging the inaccurate description of structural dimensional building products.
One upshot of the settlement is the intention of Lowe’s to include the actual product dimensions of 2×4 lumber (1.5 inches by 3.5 inches) along with the description of the product as a “2×4.”

The suit arose from a civil enforcement action filed by district attorneys of several California counties.

"Consumers should expect when making product purchases that retailers are providing accurate information especially when misinformation could adversely affect building projects that more often than not rely on precise measurements," said District Attorney Ed Berberian."

 

[Breadman03]

Side note
Lumber and tanks would so much easier to compare on international forums if they were always described in metric [emoji38]

I grew up in the 80's and had such high hopes for the US going metric. The metric system is far superior to the King's foot.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Some good points made. When I used an aquarium calculator, it came out to 346 gallons. My main tank is a 360g

 

[klp]

I filled my 32 gallon tank with exactly 20 gallons of water after all the equipment, sand, and rocks were added. Then, I marked the water level on the glass so top-offs are easy.

I like marking the level on the glass. It is the simple ideas that are so good we never seem to think of them. The only thing I would add is get your water at the correct temperature first although that would not be much of a factor unless you had a very large tank and the water being brought in was much higher or lower temperature. But if you are anal retentive...

When I start a new tank I always put in the landscape first and then keep track of how many gallons of fresh water I use. I never thought of measuring the salt displacement but putting it in a plastic bag, then into a small container displacing water into a larger container and then measuring the water works. There may be other ways more "new fangled" ways to do it but that would work and give you a fairly accurate idea of what your actual water volume is. That will not change how much water you put in the tank but I was always anal retentive and had to know...