Freshwater

Glass aquariums
Chapter 4: The Tank and Stand
Figuring water volume without a Ph.D.
If you happen to run across an older tank at a
local garage sale or auction, the seller may not
know how many gallons the aquarium holds.
Although aquarium tank sizes today are standardized,
many older tanks were not. A good
formula for obtaining an on-the-spot total for the
gallon capacity of any rectangular or squareshaped
aquarium is as follows:
Multiply the length (inches) × width (inches) ×
height (inches) and then divide by 231. The
result is the capacity of the tank in gallons.
The all-glass aquariums on today’s market are the most popular of all available
tanks. These tanks are constructed of plate glass and sealed with a nontoxic
silicone. The glass in these aquariums is either tempered, meaning it’s
stronger, lighter in weight, and shatters into pieces when it breaks, or plate,
meaning it’s heavier and thicker but only cracks when it breaks.
The frames on glass tanks are usually plastic, come in a wide variety of
colors, and are glued onto the rim. Glass tanks do not scratch easily and provide
a good viewing area because all of the walls are flat.
Some plate glass tanks can be purchased pre-drilled, which means that they
have holes drilled in them for equipment and hoses, allowing you to hide
hoses and equipment inside a normal cabinet without having to route everything
on the outside of the tank. However, pre-drilled tanks can be quite
expensive and are intended more for experienced hobbyists. Having drilled
holes is not necessary for any aquarium setup.
One disadvantage of glass aquariums is that they can be formed into a limited
number of shapes — basically, rectangles or squares. If you really want a
tank with an unusual shape, you won’t find much to please you in the glass
department.
Glass aquariums are also heavy because the glass used in construction gets
thicker as the tank gets larger. This can be a real problem if you want a big
tank and have weak floors in your home, or if you attempt to move the aquarium.
Glass aquariums can break or shatter and leave you with a lot of dead
fish and a huge mess to clean up. If you want to purchase a larger tank, play it
safe and have a contractor look at the floor where you want to place the tank
to see if it can hold the weight.
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