Question: Attention non-USA members!

[Johnny O. Farnen]

I am curious as to how aquariums are sold outside of the USA.

Are they sold by volume or dimension?

For example: Stateside most tanks are commonly sold by volume in the archaic US measurement system, as in "I bought a ten gallon tank."

I ask only because I have noticed that people from different countries describe tank sizes differently, some by volume, some by dimensions.


Why do I ask? I have started writing (Ok, attempting to write...), believe it or not, a book on advanced vivaria construction. I am currently using the metric system throughout, but am unsure if volume or dimension is more commonly understood.

US readers will just have to get with the rest of the world when the read it!

[Julia]

When I look into buying tanks they are sold by cm rather than volume.

[Rodrigo]

I think most of us use both??
I tend to use volume, since all my tanks are standard. But sometimes you just have to use dimensions because it´s the only way to know what a tank looks like. Dimensions give you appearance and volume. Volume doesn´t tell you what the tank is like...

As far as what pet-shops use...volume.

[aramcheck]

Back home in France, it tend to be volume (L) AND dimensions (cm). I find all those talk of 5, 10, 20 gallons tank most baffling...

[Johnny O. Farnen]

I feel your pain armacheck...if it makes you feel better, there is five different dimensional sizes for 20 gallon tanks here, and they are not all actually 20 gallons in volume. The US actually has no standardized sizes, so a ten gallon tank from one manufacturer is slightly different than one from another.

And that is why I going to use metric, it is just easier on everyone involved!

[Cruso]

In Canada the stores go by gallon but I prefer to go by dimensions.

[Eva]

Hope I'm not too late to contribute. Here tanks are shown in stores by dimensions - presumably for figuring how to fit them into these tiny European apartments - but online they are usually discussed by volume.

Good luck on your book!

-Eva

[Johnny O. Farnen]

Excellent. Thank you for the information!


Now I will bother you folks a bit more in detail on this:

Here is the "standard" USA glass Tank often called a "10 gallon Leader"

Exterior Dimensions Empty Full (water only)
20 1/4 x 10 1/2 x 12 9/16 inches 11Lb 111Lb

514.350 x 266.7 x 319.088mm 4.9895Kg 50.349Kg


My question is, is this "standard" tank really a worldwide standard or a North American standard?

[Mark]

I would say that those standards only apply to the US. In the UK there is no standard. Sizes vary by manufacturer.

If you're writing for the international market you're probably best sticking to metric (mm/cm for dimensions & litres for volume) and avoid any US specific measures i.e. US gallons. When I buy glass for tanks the dimensions are always requested in metric (mm).

[John Clare]

Mark makes a good point. Inches, gallons (and they're not even imperial ones), ounces, etc, are confined to the USA. The rest of the world lives in the 20th century (yeah, that's how far behind things are in the US, measurement-wise).

[big a little a]

There's always an exception to the rule...

See, I live in UK and was raised during the Metric age....but I still always use feet and inches to measure length and stones and pounds to measure weight...I think that was my Mother's doing, trying to warp my perception of the world...

x

[melfly]

Originally Posted by big a little a

There's always an exception to the rule...

See, I live in UK and was raised during the Metric age....but I still always use feet and inches to measure length and stones and pounds to measure weight...I think that was my Mother's doing, trying to warp my perception of the world...

x

I am exactly the same
Feet and inches, Stones and pounds!

Think i can blame my mum too lol

I always talk about tanks in feet and inches

Mel

[Mark]

Whenever I'm in the DIY store I can almost guarantee that some old boy will sidle up, point at a label in cm and say "what's that in old money?".

Is the US the only place to sell drinks in ounces? I find that seriously confusing. I have no way of visualizing ounces in a liquid form, they may as well be asking how many terabytes of soda I want. What's wrong with the international drinks scale of small, regular and large, eh? I hope your new president does something about it....

[b00f]

Originally Posted by Mark

Whenever I'm in the DIY store I can almost guarantee that some old boy will sidle up, point at a label in cm and say "what's that in old money?".

Is the US the only place to sell drinks in ounces? I find that seriously confusing. I have no way of visualizing ounces in a liquid form, they may as well be asking how many terabytes of soda I want. What's wrong with the international drinks scale of small, regular and large, eh? I hope your new president does something about it....

A terrabyte of coffee, LOL!

The thing is, Metric is actually based on rounded numbers, based on Water. =

Eg 1 litre of water = 1 KG

It is a better system of measurement.
There is only 1 reason anyone should be using "pounds and ounces".

[Johnny O. Farnen]

Originally Posted by Mark

Whenever I'm in the DIY store I can almost guarantee that some old boy will sidle up, point at a label in cm and say "what's that in old money?".

Is the US the only place to sell drinks in ounces? I find that seriously confusing. I have no way of visualizing ounces in a liquid form, they may as well be asking how many terabytes of soda I want. What's wrong with the international drinks scale of small, regular and large, eh? I hope your new president does something about it....

Do not feel bad, no one here can visualize one ounce either...especially because a fluid ounce is a different amount from a dry ounce which is different depending on what dry stuff is being measured... I will not even get into oddball stuff like cords of wood, hogsheads of grain, drams and pennyweights.

The international scale of drinks was ruined by a certain chain coffee house for us. They use Italian sounding drink sizes, but incorrectly.

I really appreciate all the information you folks have contributed. While I had already decided to use strictly metric measurements in the text, I hit a bit of an issue as the US measurement system is as much of a mess and I realized what is a so called standard volume tank here, may not be the case elsewhere.


So while on the topic, how about lighting "power".

Is it measured in lumen, candle-power, candelas, foot-candles, or something I have been unable to find?

How about lighting color "temperature". Here it is measured in degrees Kelvin.

[John Clare]

Alright, let me rephrase: "Everywhere that matters (i.e. not the USA or the UK) live in the 20th century as far as measurements are concerned" :P.

[felizycontento]

Hope that 10 gallon won't become an standard here. It won't feet anything here, especially the fornitures and the rest of aquarium accesories.

Standard sizes in Europe (at least in Spain)

60L 60x30x33 cm
96L 80x30x40 cm
120L 100x30x40 cm
200L 100x40x50 cm
240L 120x40x50 cm
450L 150x50x40 cm
600L 200x50x40 cm

There are some more, but those are the most commons

[Johnny O. Farnen]

Muy Excellente!

Thank you for those dimensions!

[b00f]

Light is measured in either Watts or MCD
How bright is an MCD?

MCD stand for "millicandela" or 1/1000 of a candela.
This a unit of light energy of a single color, and in a single direction. For example: if you stand a few feet from a 100W light bulb, your eyes will get about 120 candelas of brightness reaching them--that's 120,000 MCD.
The little LED's you see on cell phones may be about 20 or 30 MCD.
This is a very rough idea of what it means.

(thank you wiki.answers)

[Eva]

For what it's worth, my grandmother explained the ounce to me. It's "a single, big mouthful".

-Eva