boudster
Active Member
I thought it would be interesting to see how many gallons we actually have in our setups as opposed to how many gallons we say we have.
I'm currently in the process of setting up a "269G" custom tank with a "90G" custom sump
(http://reef2reef.com/threads/boudsters-4x6x18-dream-peninsula.253635/), and since so many of the things we do with our tanks are on a "per gallon" basis (i.e. dosing, medications, skimmer size) I wanted to see how many actual gallons I'm dealing with.
I say I have 359 total gallons, but I was shocked to see how much was actually reduced by glass thickness, water level in rimless tank, water level in sump, etc. I am not intending to account for rock and sand as to me that's still a part of the overall "tank volume".
So my tank is 72" X 48" X 18". The glass is 3/4" thick, and it has a 1" PVC bottom, so the actual dimensions that hold water are 70.5" X 46.5" X 17". Now account for the fact that it's rimless and that the water level will likely be 1.5-2" below the top edge of the glass, I'm really dealing with 70.5" X 46.5" X 15", which equates to about 213G. Wow....that's a 56 gallon loss!!
As for my sump, it's 48" X 24" X 18". It has 5 different chambers, some of which have a 16" water level, and some which have 9". Taking that, and all the baffles into account, I actually have only 55G of water, where the dimensions would indicate 90G.
So 359 Gallons becomes a mere 268 Gallons. So when I say my system is 359 Gallons, I'm lying by about 91 Gallons! That's a big difference when figuring out how much to dose!
I'm curious to see your perceived vs. actual volumes #s. Please share!
-Jim
Tank design
Sump design
I'm currently in the process of setting up a "269G" custom tank with a "90G" custom sump
(http://reef2reef.com/threads/boudsters-4x6x18-dream-peninsula.253635/), and since so many of the things we do with our tanks are on a "per gallon" basis (i.e. dosing, medications, skimmer size) I wanted to see how many actual gallons I'm dealing with.
I say I have 359 total gallons, but I was shocked to see how much was actually reduced by glass thickness, water level in rimless tank, water level in sump, etc. I am not intending to account for rock and sand as to me that's still a part of the overall "tank volume".
So my tank is 72" X 48" X 18". The glass is 3/4" thick, and it has a 1" PVC bottom, so the actual dimensions that hold water are 70.5" X 46.5" X 17". Now account for the fact that it's rimless and that the water level will likely be 1.5-2" below the top edge of the glass, I'm really dealing with 70.5" X 46.5" X 15", which equates to about 213G. Wow....that's a 56 gallon loss!!
As for my sump, it's 48" X 24" X 18". It has 5 different chambers, some of which have a 16" water level, and some which have 9". Taking that, and all the baffles into account, I actually have only 55G of water, where the dimensions would indicate 90G.
So 359 Gallons becomes a mere 268 Gallons. So when I say my system is 359 Gallons, I'm lying by about 91 Gallons! That's a big difference when figuring out how much to dose!
I'm curious to see your perceived vs. actual volumes #s. Please share!
-Jim
Tank design
Sump design
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