Water Weight vs. Sand/Gravel Weight?

[CalmedByFish]

Googling, I'm finding that 1 cubic foot of water weighs 60-something pounds. Nope! (Can you imagine trying to pour milk on your cereal if that were true? 😂 )

And I'm finding that 1 cubic foot of sand weighs 90+ pounds. Considering that I can pick up a cubic foot of sand, nope!

I'm just trying to know how to not put too much weight on the counter my tank is on.

Anybody nerdy enough to know the actual answers? Or perhaps you can confidently tell me something like, "Sand and gravel do weigh less/more than water?"

 

 

[Dawn T]

Well, a gallon of water weighs right at about 8.3 pounds, give or take depending on the container and how full it is. Sand and gravel, depends on the exact type, as some are more dense than others. The bags usually state the weight of the amount they contain.

Doing calculations, yes, a cubic foot container would contain about 60 pounds. 1 ft x 1 ft x 1 ft - contains 7.47 gallons of water. 7.47 gallons x 8.3 pounds = 62 pounds.

BTW, here's a good basic tool for figuring out the volume of water in a tank with known dimensions.

http://landoffish.com/fish-tank-calculator/

Edited November 20, 2021 by Dawn T

[CalmedByFish]

On 11/20/2021 at 3:50 PM, Dawn T said:

Well, a gallon of water weighs right at about 8.3 pounds...

Doing calculations, yes, a cubic foot container would contain about 60 pounds. 1 ft x 1 ft x 1 ft - contains 7.47 gallons of water. 7.47 gallons x 8.3 pounds = 62 pounds.

This prompted me to grab a tape measure, and a gallon of milk. Wow! A gallon of liquid is a lot smaller than I thought! Thank you for this.

But I'll leave my clueless post, in case it helps other people who are having the same "duh moment" I did. 😂

[Flumpweesel]

On 11/20/2021 at 10:31 PM, CalmedByFish said:

But I'll leave my clueless post, in case it helps other people

Metric really does make this stuff easier. 1litre water is equal to 1kg. If there was ever a system built for fish keepers this must be it. 

Although I do use some imperial measures (beer is a pint) for anything I need to calculate it's metric. I'm so happy I never had to learn pounds and fluid ounces.

[Dawn T]

LOL I did the same thing. I didn't realize just how small a gallon of milk was either.