Making my tank Earthquake Proof

[cstormes]

I live in beautiful (and sunny today) Southern California, which is also an area prone to (recent) earthquakes. Having said that I'm beginning a reef install this evening (37G high glass tank), and I need advice from anyone in the area that has had to secure their tank in case of this act of G-D. Due to space limitations, I have to sit my tank at a 45 degree angle in a corner of a room--does anyone have a suggestion for a specific product and/or method of securing my tank in case of earthquake?

Quick replies are appreciated--many thanks!!

Chris

 

[OrionGirl]

Well, the biggest 'earthquake' design that I know of is to use acrylic tanks--it resists shocks better than glass. Otherwise, similar precautions that you'd take with a large piece of furniture, like your TV. Make sure the stand is secure, and brace the tank into the stand. Make sure nothing will fall and hit the tank (check the walls--a falling painting would be disastrous), and that all the bits are secured--hoses and filters, any hood, lighting, etc.

 

[saltyc]

and make sure your rock inside the tank is really stable, too! Something falling from the inside could be just as disastrous as from the outside!

 

[pophead]

yes acrylic would be good. take a look into making a wood/acrylic tank. they can be practically earthquake proof.
if your talking about little quakes a bit of foam under the stand and under the tank may be good.
wouldn't want to be swimmin with the fishies! :shark:

 

[Max]

Either foam or even rubber pads. The best you'll get is earth quake resistant but, you could also glue and strap your l.r. together place tank on concrete floor, make sure that there isn't anything in a fall radius around your tank.
hth
chris

 

[cstormes]

I agree that acrylic is a the ultimate answer, but I should have prefaced that this is the tank i have to work with and I was simply curious of how to secure the tank from tipping.

Having said that here's what I did:
Anchored two eye screws into the wall behind the tank, and ran a 380lb. rated cable around the front of the tank, hidden by the hood. It satisfied my requirements of being inconspicuous while more secure than having nothing at all.

I also like the foam idea and will try to incorporate it--thanks Max.

CS

 

[brovo2zero]

you might want a taller tank for a bit of slosh room and dont fill it right to the top second you might want a larger grit for the botom insted of sand as your reef wont colapes as fast as it would on sand .. use large rocks so they dont tip over on your fish .. and probly use fish from your area they would probly be used to the vibration and wont get as stresed .. plastic glass shuld not make to much difernce but you might want to use a thicker galss and plastic
add to the reforcing so a side dont pop off from sloshing of the water inside the tank .. and a maybe put a few layers of fome under the tank and a lid might stop things flying out if water will spash around .. you might also want to check your placemnt in your house if you have a lot of earth movment you would not want to put your tank were something can fall off a shelf and colide with the tank and if water splashes around in the tank in an earth quake you might not want to put your tank over a carpeted area .. hope that gives you some things to think about ...

 

[tphilipp]

This is an old thread, but I thought I would add to it. I started with the same question for my tank, and instead I think I have an answer.

My situation: Oceanic BioCube 29 on the Oceanic Stand. It's glass and no real option to lower the water level. It's also on the 16th floor of a 20-story high-rise. I take that to be an advantage as the buildings of that height, especially in southern california, are designed to transform the sharpness of the quake with gentle sway. In that case, I'm less concerned about cracked glass and more concerned about tipping over.

My plan:
a) Secure tank to stand
- Black straps around the top and bottom of the tank, as tight as possible.
- Secure a pair of 4x1 to the back of the stand up through the straps. Gravity will keep the tank from bouncing, the straps will keep the tank from sliding or tipping.
b) Secure stand from tipping.
- A 240lb tank at 3' height creates potentially 720 foot-pounds of torque to tip over, but only if it is able to start the tipping. Since the tank is secure to the stand, I'm planning on adding a pair of 1x4 extending about 1' on each side of the bottom of the stand. The leverage of the protruding wood, on any side, should be sufficient to transfer potential tipping energy into sliding energy. I don't care if the tank crawls, as long as it retains integrity of the glass and most of the water.
c) Secure external hoses.
- The Biocube was designed to be all-in-one. Whatever. I got tubes going in and out. Namely a turtle 501 filter (forget the name, but it's tiny, slow and reliable, and set up as mechanical filtration) attached to a 5w external UV filter. I'm trying to decide whether to secure the filter to the tank so it can bounce with it and not stress the tubes. Or figure out some quick-release method where, should the tubes break, the breakpoints are predetermined so to not allow the draining effect.
- Elevate the outlets for all electrical cables. Water will spash out and follow the cables down, so need to make the lowest spot something that is not an electrical outlet that can possibly start an electrical fire.

This tank is in my cube at work. There has been no requirement to secure it, but I don't want to give anyone an excuse to ask me to remove it because of earthquake safety. If anyone has any other suggestions or concerns, let me know.