Buying an Aquarium Tank

December 26, 2008 · Filed Under Aquarium Tank, Freshwater Aquarium Setup · 1 Comment 

Whether it’s a saltwater aquarium or freshwater aquarium that you are looking at buying you will find many different shapes, styles and sizes available in the market.  Even if you have limited space in your house or apartment there is an aquarium tank to suit you.

Considerations when Buying Aquarium Tanks

When buying an aquarium tank you will have the option to buy a stand. Gone are the days of ugly steel stands and they have been replaced by beautiful cabinets or wrought iron stands. Remember if you standing your tank on an existing cabinet, that your tank when filled with water can weigh a lot and your existing cabinet can quite easily collapse.

Think before Purchasing

Your first purchase of any aquarium set up is the tank, as all equipment you buy will depend on the size and volume of the aquarium and generally the bigger the tank the more expensive your other equipment will be. Consider these few parameters which will affect you decision. Your aquarium will be different to another person and will have to suit your environment and space of your house.

What’s the reason or purpose of your aquarium? Are you having a tank in your living room or maybe in your office? Or maybe you want set up a community aquarium or just a species aquarium? These questions can give you ideas on the size and shape of the aquarium tank.

Upon deciding on the purpose you can get an idea of the size of tank that can fit in our chosen space. When measuring allow a good foot either side for you to move around for cleaning and maintenance and 8 inch behind to allow for cables, filters and heaters to be located. After you have filled your aquarium it will be too late to move it for maintenance or cleaning so plan in advance.

How Heavy is Water?

Plus or minus a gallon of water is 10 pounds, so a typical 24×12×20 tank will hold approx 25 gallons, which will weigh n the region of 250 pounds, so take this into consideration when choosing your aquarium tank. By using this we can estimate the weight of your aquarium setup when you include the water, rocks and equipment etc.

Calculating the Volume of Water for Odd Sized Tanks

A good formula for obtaining an easy on-the-spot total for the gallon capacity of any rectangular or square shaped aquarium is as follows:

Multiply the length (inches) x width (inches) x height (inches) and then divide by 231.  The result is the capacity of the tank in gallons

Tags: aquarium, aquarium set, Aquarium Tank, aquarium tanks, buying, cabinets, cables, collapse, community aquarium, living room, parameters, saltwater aquarium, tank, wrought iron