20 lb piece replica coral safe for tank?

drea

drea

Active Member
I just got it... its pretty heavy (20 lbs) and i want to put it in my 70 gallon tank. Its a huge nice piece that is really tall, but how weight much can a 70 gallon tank really suport?
The reason i ask is because the weight is not distributed, but will be more on the spot w/ the coral now.....
thanx for any info and related experiences....... i don't want to damage the tank! :notsure:
 
thegrog

thegrog

Active Member
YOu should be fine weight wise. In my 125, I have almost 150 pounds of rock as well as around 100 pounds of sand. Tanks can take the weight. As long as you don't have 50 pounds in a 1/2" area in the center of the tank with no supports, you are good to go.
Just don't drop it in!
 
drea

drea

Active Member
so how much weight can a tank actually take? the peice is 20 lbs and the bottom is only like 5 x 5 inches!!! i really hope this dosen't cause too much stress!
 
drew2005

drew2005

Active Member
Bottoms of tanks are made with tempered glass to support alot of weight. Im sure youll be ok. Unless you plan on putting 500lbs worth of stuff in there, then youll have some problems.
 
thegrog

thegrog

Active Member
Originally Posted by drea
so how much weight can a tank actually take? the peice is 20 lbs and the bottom is only like 5 x 5 inches!!! i really hope this dosen't cause too much stress!
I hope you mean the bottom of the peice is 5"x5", else your tank is like 40 feet tall!!

The peice is 25 square inches at the bottom, that is less than one PSI.
Hwo much wieght your tank can realistically take? Well, empty, your 70 gallon tank has around 68 gallons in it (nobody fills it up to the very top edge). The water weight alone is approx 560 pounds. Add 70 pounds of substrate, about 70 pounds of rock (ideal quantity) and you have a total of 700 pounds.
If your tank dimensions are the standard 48x18, that gives you an area of 864 in^2
Now, that is around 0.8 PSI
The probably design the tank for overload as I have seen 70's with around 160 pounds of LR in them!! I would take an educated guess that the tempered glass can take around 4-5 PSI total (probably more, but I am a tad conservative).
Sorry for the math lesson
but it explains the question.
Tomorrows lesson, quantam physics 101
 
pfitz44

pfitz44

Active Member
Archimedes Principle States that Any object, wholly or partly immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.
An example:
Salt water generally has a weight of 64 lbs/ft cubed (1 cubic foot of water weights 64 lbs) This deinitly depends on your SG, but well leave it simple for now.... So, you want to but in some LR. Lets say for argument sake, that your LR is real dense (Not what you typicaly want) and it weighs 66 lbs/ft cubed. Your rock, in your water, will only weigh 2 lbs!! therefore adding two pounds to your tank....
Now, i know what your all thinking.... i dont have 64 lbs of LR in my tank, why isnt it floating??? Its due to the density of the rock... rock is a pretty dense material.... and if you take your lightest piece of rock, do some measurements on it, and take the weight, i bet you'll find out that it actually more dense then your water... I dont suggest it though.. because you will have to crush it up!!

Or just measure the amount of water that the rock displaces.... but who thinks that is fun??? breaking stuff is always better!!!

Ok Physics lesson done!! LUNCH TIME!!!
 
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