Re: [APD] Securing Tanks for Earthquakes

[Vaughn Hopkins <hoppycalif at yahoo_com>]

In an earthquake it is the floor that moves, and the wall that lags 
behind.  (I have watched the joint between the walls at the corner and 
the wall and floor move during a quake where I just happened to be 
looking that way.)  The danger to the aquarium is from the water not 
wanting to move, while the tank has to move with it's stand, which has 
to move because the  floor moves.  Thus the water sloshes really bad.  
If the earthquake is so bad that a sturdy stand fails or the tank 
shakes off the stand, you will probably have far more serious things to 
worry about than the loss of the tank, the fish, the plants, the 
aquarium equipment, etc.  So, the effort to protect an aquarium with 
elastic mounts is extremely unlikely to be effective or even worth the 
effort.  But, if one wanted really, really badly to protect their 
aquarium, the elastic mounts would have to be shear mounts, placed 
between the floor and the stand, and the stand would have to be very 
rigid.  Even that would be ineffective during the rare earthquakes with 
severe vertical ground movement.

Vaughn H.

On Monday, February 13, 2006, at 09:40 PM, Charlie wrote:

> If I were going to construct something of this nature I would inspect 
> the
> use of "break away motor mounts" found in almost all automobiles since
> around 95 and up. They have vary large rubber grommets that absorb 
> vibration
> very well. They most often have a flat mounting flange with bolt holes 
> and
> then a large steel sleeved rubber grommet. Something like this would 
> isolate
> the tank from the abrupt movement the wall may experience during a 
> shake.
> Isolating the tank from the floor is another parameter to consider.

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