nanoguy said:
Is there a rule of thumb on how to estimate actual tank water volume?
For a normal tank:
T= thickness of glass/acrylic in inches
D= water level drop below top edge of tank
H= outside height dimension of tank
W= outside width dimension of tank
L= outside dimension of tank
R= lbs of live rock and live sand
overflow: highly variable depending on type and numberr (guestimate it)
Volume in gallons = ((W-2T)*(L-2T)*(H-2T-D))/231 - R/23 - overflow
So..my "40g tank" has 3/8" acrylic, measures 36x15x16H, has no overflow, water level 1" below the top and about 25lb of rock and no sand
((36-2*0.375)*(15-2*0.375-1)*(16-2*0.375))/231 - 25/23 - 0 = 30 gallons
(you can just cut and paste the formula into google and replace the letters with appropriate numbers like so
Example
Gresham, update me for 30 and 11