Whats the formula for calulating lbs of sand needed?

[FrankB1]

for a certain depth?

 

[monkeyboy]

Pounds per a certain depth depend on the material being used. Inland reef has graciously done all the annoying stuff and created a nice sand calculator which can be found here.

 

[King Jason]

That's a slick little program! I wonder how accurate it is? Anyone put the theory to use?

 

[liquid]

Basically what Matt/Tom at Inland Reef did was take the manufacturer's specs for the bulk density of their sand products and used this to calculate the volume of sand needed. FWIW, we've had this program mirrored in our library for a couple months now: http://www.reefs.org/library

Shane

 

[mgk65]

It's really easy!

Take the ( (Length * Width * Depth of Sand) (all in inches) / 1728) * 90 = lbs of sand

This gives you the approximate pounds of sand.

Sand like Southdown sand or fine carib sea sand is around 90 lbs per foot2.

So for a tank that is 48" long, 20" wide and for a 6 inch sand bed, the pounds of sand = ( (48 * 20 * 6) / 1728 ) * 90 = 300 lbs.

mgk

 

[liquid]

A bulk density of 90 #/cu.ft. doesn't work for all products. Depending on the particle size, you can have anywhere from 60 #/cu.ft. to 100 #/cu.ft. A larger particle size will have a lower bulk density than a smaller paritcle size sand. Example: Aruba Shell (63 #/cu.ft.) vs. Southdown (96.5 #/cu.ft.).

Shane

 

[MattM]

Basically what Matt/Tom at Inland Reef did was take the manufacturer's specs for the bulk density of their sand products...

At the time, we didn't have that data. I made a little tray out of acrylic 6" x 6" x 1" deep. Exactly 36 cu inches.

Then we filled it with different kinds of sand and weighed it. After that it's just math!

 

[liquid]

Ah! Well that'll give you the same results! lol

Shane