Tank Weight help

Hey ladies and lads,
Need to find something out quickly.
Does anyone know how much weight/mass/volume a tank can withstand?
Let's say the glass is 6mm and there are double braces along the top of the tank. It's 900mm L x 350mm W x 600mm H

I ask, because I'm going to be putting a lot of rocks in the tank, and I don't want it to burst.

Maybe someone knows of a calculator I could use?

 

If it helps, I had about 25kgs worth of slate and gravel in my previous tank and it held up.
It had the same dimensions as your tank aswell.

 

Hey Linxie,

try this site : http://www.theaquatools.com/building-your-aquarium

it might help...not sure if it will tell you the maximum capacity though...

 

Thanks Ruan, that does help

Great site that JesseG, thanks ^^,

 

Just remember. Each rock you put into your tank, it takes away from your overall volume of water you have. :idea:

 

LOL yeah, I actually forgot about that *blush* Thanks Ace wa-ti-kak-va-ti

 

http://reef.diesyst.com/volcalc/volcalc.html

 

Thanks Khalid That's a useful site!

 

some good sites referenced here, thanks for that!

calculating tank water volume:
Length in CM multiplied by Width in CM multiplied by Height in CM divded by 1000 = Water Volum in Litres. I then take away 15% for water height and gravel displacement which then gives a very close to NETT water volume. Adding rocks/wood will further displace water reducing the NETT water volume.

note: what you're actually looking for is the water pressure exerted on the glass which then gives you the glass thickness and bracing requirements... I dont have a formulae for this but one of the sites noted gives the glass thickness, but not the bracing. a good tool can be found on www.garf.org under their diy pages for this. Simply, as the water column height increases so does the pressure on the glass and the narrower the tank, the greater the pressure. eg. a tank which is 60cm wide and 60cm high will have a pressure of 10 (as an example). If the water height increased to 90, then the pressure will increase to 15 or if the width of the tank decreased to 30 then the pressure will increase to 15 or if the water height increase to 90 and the width decreased to 30 then the pressure will increase to 20... (all pressure figures are just examples)... long and the short, once the water height is 60cm and more, the minimum glass thickness is 10mm (obviously thicker if the tank is over 180cm long) and the tank must be braced, ideally with euro bracing.

lastly, if you're putting lots of rocks in the tank you should put a sheet of thick dense polystyrene under the rocks to protect the glass and cussion the weight etc.

 

Thanks Dolphin! Makes sense. Will visit that site shortly.