Gallons?

[ella777]

I'm really confused.
Do people use US or imperial gallons when it comes to tanks??

 

[connorlindeman]

Most use either US Gallons or liters. Imperial gallons are hardly ever used.

 

[Uberhoust]

For tanks US gallons are typically used because the US market is larger, and the units are smaller than the Imperial gallons making the tanks seem slightly more impressive for marketing reasons.

 

[Essjay]

The King British range uses Imperial gallons but it doesn't say this in the instructions. I had to work it out using the dose rate for litres and converting.

It's much safer in non-US countries to use litres as that way mistakes can't be made.

 

[Uberhoust]

Most of the world uses litres, we should too. In the 70s Canada and the US were going to go metric, and it became a big political issue. Canada ended up partially metric, the US is pretty much has their own system. In Canada units are kind of the wild west now, we even have official units that use components of both systems, i.e. Board Feet / Meter cubed for example. In purely scientific fields most places are now metric, or based on SI units, but any area with a large "public" presence often uses a mix of units, i.e. Sandwich meat measured grams, but ground beef measured in pounds. Marketing loves this because it makes it difficult to compare prices. Sorry for the rant, we didn't go metric because it would be too difficult, but now we have to know all the systems.

 

[ella777]

Thank you, I'm in the UK so I was confused what size tank I have.

 

[TNG]

Thank you, I'm in the UK so I was confused what size tank I have.

This is what I do to find out the size of my tank.

I measure the length, width and height of the tank then divide it by 1000. If the length is 100cm, width 30cm and height is 30cm, then the size of my tank is (100*30*30)/1000 = 90. The tank is 90 litres.

1 UK Gallon = 4.546 litres, so that same tank is 19.72 UK Gal

1 US Gallon = 3.785 litres, so the tank is 23.78 US Gal

 

[Essjay]

If you don't like working it out yourself, we have a calculator on the forum which will do everything for you

Calculator

It doesn't just work out the volume from the dimensions (in inches or cm) in litres, US gallons and Imperial gallons, it also converts temperature between C & F, and hardness units, both of which are useful for converting numbers in posts.

 

[GaryE]

My region in Canada seems to have accepted straight up metric more than English speaking Canada has. When it comes to aquarium stuff though, what we get is US 'processeed' (it may be made in China but it's to US specs with US brand names). So I use litres except for tanks, where I think in gallons. On forums like this where many Americans are involved, I translate to fahrenheit or inches.
I expect everything aquaristic I buy to be in US measurements. It'll be interesting to see if that changes as the hobby shifts to China. But in the hobby, measurements follow power, and the old British imperial measurements are forgotten here.

 

[FranciscoB]

Although an important consideration in aquarium keeping (difference between US and UK gallon), the difference is somewhat less relevant than one may think, unless one is trying to achieve a certain dosage level to medicate a fish in a small volume of water (such as a fish bowl or a bucket). In most aquariums (say above 10 gallons and up to large tanks), much larger sources of error are introduced when estimating the internal volume of an aquarium, as compared to the actual amount of water it contains under normal circumstances.
In fact, commercial nominal aquarium sizes are almost always just approximations. Factors such as whether the tank is filled to the very rim (not possible in most cases), measurements taken in the interior versus exterior of tank when using calculators, thickness of the walls, volume displaced by any substratum or decorations, and others, all result in imprecision in estimating 'aquarium volume'. Most stated (nominal) aquarium capacities are somewhat less (sometimes quite a bit less) than the actual volume kept under normal circumstances. The smaller the tank, the more relevant the difference.

 

[ella777]

This is what I do to find out the size of my tank.

I measure the length, width and height of the tank then divide it by 1000. If the length is 100cm, width 30cm and height is 30cm, then the size of my tank is (100*30*30)/1000 = 90. The tank is 90 litres.

1 UK Gallon = 4.546 litres, so that same tank is 19.72 UK Gal

1 US Gallon = 3.785 litres, so the tank is 23.78 US Gal

90 litres? Wouldn't it be more like 200?

 

[Essjay]

No, it's 90 litres

 

[ella777]

No, it's 90 litres

View attachment 310790

Sorry, it makes more sense now.

 

[Naughts]

90 litres? Wouldn't it be more like 200?

I don't think we get many tanks with these 'thin, short' proportions in the UK. You are probably used to 90cm tanks having bigger dimensions.

 

[ella777]

I don't think we get many tanks with these 'thin, short' proportions in the UK. You are probably used to 90cm tanks having bigger dimensions.

I'm in the UK, my tank is 100x40cm. In my head it didn't really make sense if the tank is only 90 litres when mine is 180-200 litres.