Scott Cramer wrote this.

My aquarium was advertised as having a 55 gallon capacity.

Filling it with water – aside from decorations and rocks – this just didn’t seem like it was true.

Here’s some good information on the actual capacity of your aquarium / fish tank.

Good explanation of why your tank is NOT really the size you purchased and simple formula to figure out the actual capacity.
CLICK HERE TO OPEN IN NEW WINDOW

More complex formula to figure out your tank’s actual capacity. If you hate numbers or thinking don’t go here. But if you really hate numbers and thinking, consider a gold fish bowl, eh?
CLICK HERE TO OPEN IN NEW WINDOW

So, what about my 55 gallons???

• First off, here are the approximate dimensions of my tank:
  48x21x12.5 outside dimensions (actual edge to edge)
  47.5x17x12 inside dimensions (inside glass measurements and height from rock substrate to the top edge of the water, so just the space that actually CONTAINS water)
• Using the first (simple) link above:
  Multiple out the inside dimensions and divide by 231 (Length x Width x Height / 231).
  My 55 gallons? Actually about 42 gallons in reality! However this does not account for the space taken up (displacement of water) by decorations or anything else in the tank.
• Using the second (more complex) link above:
  The chart at the second link uses the outside measurements from what I understand. For mine, the height was a little off because I think they go by a purely glass tank and mine has a plastic rim on the top and bottom which increases the height a bit. You plug in your numbers and follow down the right column in the chart to find your tank capacity.
  My 55 gallons? Actually about 40 gallons in reality! Now this chart I think is considering the fact that you have other things in the water taking up space and after considering the first number I got (42 gallons) less other things in the tank, the 40 gallon number makes sense – for my tank, at least.

Why does it all matter? Well, first off I just like to know what I really have. Beyond that, the capacity of your tank makes a difference in trying to figure out how many fish you can have or dosing out medication to the tank if needed. Think about it – if I were to treat my tank for a sickness, 40 gallons vs 55 gallons on dosage would make a pretty big deal! Why might my fish get sick? Well, if I filled the tank with fish for 55 gallons of water vs 40 gallons of water, I effectively became a fish slum lord with all the sickness hazards of overcrowding.

I’m a noob, but it makes sense to me. Anyone else? Love to hear from you in the comments!

The new 55 gallon aquarium is going through it’s “new cycling” phase. See future post for more on this or just forget about it for the purpose of this post! One of the starter fish, the smallest, started doing poorly a day or two ago. First he was lethargic and not eating. Then, the other fish starting nipping at him and he cowered in a top corner away from everyone. I came home from work this evening and did a quick head-count. Everyone still present and accounted for – well, almost. The sickly one was not only without pieces of his tail fin but entirely without the tail fin and in fact, a few bites out of his body. Cringe.

Image by John Schwegel

What to do? He wasn’t dead so I couldn’t Doctor Kevorkian him could I? “What do fish feel?” I wondered as I looked at him (her?) and followed quickly by a second thought of, “How can he swim without a tail?” Then I couldn’t get an old children’s poem out of my head – the one by Shel Silverstein about being eaten alive by a snake. Yeah, I know, a children’s poem about being eaten alive by a snake… not today’s topic. An aquarium is supposed to be relaxing, and sitting in my living room working on the computer while twelve fish are slowly eating another fish alive is, I must say, not at all relaxing.

I determined to put this fish out of it’s (removing personal pronouns at this level does make it easier) misery. By it’s, I mean equally mine. By mine, I mean, I’m not being eaten alive by other apartment dwellers in my building, so I guess in the end I’m actually putting my uncomfortability out of it’s misery along with this poor thing. Decision made, it was only up to the “how”. I remember my brother having caught a mouse, mangled, but still alive, in a trap. He dumped it in a sack in his back yard and proceeded to whack it into jelly with a shovel. Then I remembered too how grossed out he was – plus I live in an apartment and have little need for a shovel. The closest thing I’ve got is a large serving spoon. Albeit, the comparative size of mouse vs. shovel and fish vs. spoon ratio out pretty well, I’d feel guilty serving potatoes again with that spoon.

I remembered my brother’s claims that last time I owned a tank I had dispatched of a sick fish by dropping him head first into a growling garbage disposal. To tell my side of it, I still claim this is a story I told my brother about another person and he has somehow transposed the deed unto me. I personally think he carries guilt over the mouse jelly incident. My proof is that, no matter how quick it might be for the fish, I am still grossed out by the thought of dropping a partially eaten yet alive animal any-side-first into spinning blades of death. Way way way too up close and personal. Heck, I still think meat comes from the grocery, not animals.

Which left me only one other option, cliche as it might be, that I could think of at the time. Dropping a partially eaten yet alive animal any-side-first into swirling waters of doom. Much much much different than my other option. Sure the fish would live longer somewhere in the dark bowels of the apartment sewage system but I wouldn’t have to distress my sensibilities with the sound of grinding garbage disposal blades. Flushing was like burial at sea. Perhaps honorable, even. Perhaps even the possibility he’d be snapped up by the jaws of a waiting sewer gator eliminating all chance of long suffering, AND paying tribute to the circle of life. Yes, this was the way to go.

And so it was.

Except now I’m afraid to sit on the stool. To paraphrase, “Karma’s a real fish.”

Sick fish? What did you do? Sound off in the comments!

So, what do you have in your house containing water and fish? Is the correct term or definition for it a “fish tank” or an “aquarium”?

To jump start the discussion I found some useful information on Englishforums.com. I have provided the link in case you want to check it out, but I’ll paraphrase the pertinent bits below if you just want to continue chilling here.

Bit One…

Definitions of “aquarium”:
1. container for fish: a water-filled transparent container, often box-shaped, in which fish and other water animals and plants are kept
2. aquatic zoo: a building in which fish and other water animals are kept and shown to the public

Defintion of “fish tank”:
noun: a tank or pool or bowl filled with water for keeping live fish and underwater animals

Pretty much the same by definition for either one when you look at it that way.

Bit Two…

In many situations “fish tank” and “aquarium” could be used interchangeably — I might ask my daughter if she had cleaned the aquarium lately, or I might say the fish tank. But “aquarium” has a more expensive, decorative implication — “fish tank” is more basic. The phrase “My, what a beautiful _______________” would more likely be completed with “aquarium” rather than “fish tank.”

For example, a Chinese restaurant has a beautiful aquarium in the front of the restaurant for people to look at while waiting for a table. Near the kitchen, they have a tank of live lobsters waiting to become someone’s dinner. I don’t know if restaurants ever keep live fish to turn into dinner, but if they did, they would probably call the place they keep them a fish tank, not an aquarium.

Bit Three…

Think of the difference that comes to mind between a church and a cathedral.

Bit Four…

Typically, a fish tank is something smaller, say, 5 to 10 gallon capacity. If you say “I have an aquarium in my house”, the impression is often of something larger and elaborately decorated with a large selection of expensive, and often exotic tropical species with seascape in aqua color lighting.

No one likely calls the Monterey Aquarium a fish tank. However someone may call their 10 gallon fish tank an aquarium.

My conclusion? I say “my” since I don’t believe there is a set-in-stone grammatical law for all aspects of this question and what follows from here are strictly my own thoughts on the matter.

• In the case of a large public aquatic zoo, it’s definitely “aquarium” all the way.
• Below that, if it doesn’t take up an entire room, then strictly by definition I think you could stand firm grammatically either way.
• Scaling down to fish kept in the home environment, though, my personal opinion is that a small, inexpensive setup easily obtained and maintained and with a small amount of fish is a “fish tank”. To me, anything from a bowl up to the 15 to 20 gallon containers that you can easily cart out of the store under one arm is a “fish tank”.
• There’s a gray area going from the 20 to 30 gallon size that to me tips the scale into the category of “aquarium” based on the intricacy and aesthetic qualities of the environments that are created. A 20 gallon glass rectangle filled with water, a smattering of pebbles, and some gold fish is a “fish tank”. A 20 gallon glass rectangle filled with water, a landscaped bed of pebbles, decorations, plants, and a variety of aquatic life chosen with some sense of marine balance or to mimic a natural marine environment is an “aquarium”.
• Larger size containers from 55 to 75 gallons are typically going to be called “aquariums” based on the sheer presence of the aquatic environment. Hobbyists at this level, taking on the cost and maintenance of a larger environment are more likely going to go the extra distance for a representation of a true marine environment or a more carefully selected ecosystem of fish and other aquatic life not easily just thrown together or maintained.
• However, if someone does, for example, have a 75 gallon environment filled with feeder fish or one or two haphazard decorations and a couple fish, then personally I’d revert back to calling it a “fish tank” and not an “aquarium”.

Personally, I have a 55 gallon aquarium. Hypocritically speaking, though, I’ll probably still call it a fish tank when I’m talking to my 7-year-old daughter or in casual conversation with someone that I don’t really want to spend a half hour regurgitating what you’ve just read here.

Any other fish tank / aquarium owners out there? Disgruntled fish tank / aquarium retailers trying to optimize your fish tank / aquarium web pages for the search engines?

Sound off in the comments!