How much rock can this puppy hold

ckrause

AC Members
Jan 24, 2007
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Pocono Mountains
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Chuck
I want to build caves and cool formations with some medium size rocks in my new 90, my buddy keeps telling me the thing will hold the moon but I'm nervous, what kind of weight can these aquariums actually hold? Should I be worried if I put 50-100 pounds of extra rock in this thing? I got 100 pounds of substrate in it and 720 pounds of water, what can these things take?

Thanks

Chuck
 
The average SW reef or FOWLR has 2-3 pounds of rock per gallon of tank size plus 3-4 inches of sand. Be sure to stack or secure your rock so it won't fall, since the impact could break the glass, but the weight alone shouldn't be a problem.

The stand and subflooring would be a bigger concern than the glass box.
 
most aquarium glass tanks have tempered glass on the bottom..they can actually be filled with rocks with no issue.
 
Found a nice calculator, but I don't know offhand if aquarium glass is tempered or not and how thick it is. I'm not sure who much I trust said calculator. I put in 12 x48 (55g tank bottom) that's .5" thick with the center strut in the middle so 2 ft apart or so. I got 128 lbs annealed glass and 528 lbs tempured glass. We all know that's bogus. Just water alone in a 55g adds up to 550 lbs or so. The nerd in me sees this as a simple math/engineering problem. The weight in the tank is distributed which helps some.
 
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I have at least 400 lbs of slate in my 75, most of it in 3 large cubes that weigh 100lb+ each.
 
The average SW reef or FOWLR has 2-3 pounds of rock per gallon of tank size plus 3-4 inches of sand. Be sure to stack or secure your rock so it won't fall, since the impact could break the glass, but the weight alone shouldn't be a problem.

The stand and subflooring would be a bigger concern than the glass box.

I think it's 1-2 lbs of rock, and your right about the sand, tanks can hold a lot of weight.


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Actually , how much live rock depends on the look or set up you are after.. a reef tank will usually have 3lbs + per gallon to create a reef. FOWLR 1-2 on average ;)
 
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