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I have often wondered about the size of the screensaver aquarium. Jim said that it is about 200 gallons with juvenile fish about 3 to 4 inches. So I decided to try and calculate it.
On my 17 inch monitor the fish average about 1 inch long, so 1 inch = about 3 ½ inches in real life. My monitor’s viewable area is 12.7 x 9.7 inches. Multiplying by 3.5 gives a view size of about 44.5 x 34 inches in real life. I estimate there are 5 inches of extra space on either side where 4 inch fish turn around with a bit of room to spare. In addition, I will add an extra 1 ½ inch on the top for air space and ½ inch on the bottom for more gravel. This makes internal dimensions of about 54.5 inches wide x 36 inches high. Add an inch on the two sides and bottom for glass and trim and we get external dimensions of something like 56.5” wide x 37” high.
I checked Oceanic’s web site, a premium aquarium manufacturer. Their standard 200 gallon tanks are 84.5 wide x 24.75 high x 24.5 inches deep overall. Proportions of aquariums differ. Some people prefer lower and deeper aquariums with lots of surface area to absorb oxygen. Others prefer a taller aquarium with a shallow depth providing a more showy aquarium.
The screensaver aquarium’s overall width to height ratio is 1.53 to 1. That’s different from the 3.41 to 1 ratio of Oceanic’s standard aquarium.
If we take a third off the length of Oceanic’s aquarium and add it to the height, we get 56.3 wide x 37.1 high x 24.5 inches deep, which is almost exactly the size I calculated above.
Estimation of the fish length was approximate, but I think the overall size of the screensaver aquarium is about 56.5 wide x 37 high x 24.5 inches deep. The viewable area would be something like 44.5 wide x 34 inches high.
David
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