Gene Dillenburg asked:

>I'm writing labels about parrotfish for an aquarium.   Parrotfish eat
algae
>on rocks and corals.  To get at the algae, they chomp off bits of rock and
>coral.  Their digestive system grings these up into fine sand.  A single
>parrotfish can produce up to 500 kg. sand per year.

>I want to put that into human terms.  How many gallon milk jugs?  How many
>two-liter pop bottles?  How many bathtubs?  Something.  But I need to know
>how much volume 500 kg. of sand would take up.

>Can anyone give me the weight of sand for *any* volume -- cubic inch?
>cubic centimeter?  fluid ounce?  dry ounce?  Anything -- just give me the
>numbers, and I'll do the math.

1 cubic metre of dry sand weighs approximately 1300 kg, therefore 500kg
would
occupy about 0.385 cubic metres, or 385 litres.

George Bailey
Objects Conservator
Australian War Memorial
Treloar Centre for Conservation
4 Callan St, Mitchell, A.C.T. 2911
Australia
Phone: +61 2 6243 4440
fax:   +61 2 6241 7998
email: [log in to unmask]
Website: www.awm.gov.au

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