I nevertheless recall the sound. It wasn't a snap or a bang. It was a slow, agonizing groan coming from the floorboards of my third-floor apartment. I had just ended scaping a endearing 55-gallon long. It was my conceit and joy. Id spent three months salary upon imported Ohko stone and high-grade ADA Amazonia soil. I felt in the manner of a king. That is, until I realized my "king" setup weighed as much as a baby elephant. I hadnt used an aquarium weight calculator encourage then. I just assumed "Its solitary water, right?" Wrong. extremely wrong.

When you acquire into this hobby, you think just about fish tank sizing. You think virtually plants. You think just about the absolute CO2 levels. You rarely think roughly the structural integrity of your joists. But if you ignore the math, gravity will eventually introduce itself to you in the most expensive artifice possible. If you want to avoid a literal indoor swimming pool in your living room, you habit to understand how to calculate the full weight of your setup aquarium. Its not just roughly the glass and the liquid. It's the sum of its parts. And those parts are heavy.

Lets be honest. We all eyeball things. We look at a 20-gallon tank and think, "I can carry that." Sure, empty, its a breeze. But water is a dense, unforgiving mistress. One gallon of lively water weighs in this area 8.34 pounds. Saltwater?