Mini-quake in Canada, tank tips?

[L number Banana]

We just had a miniquake today (5.5) so nothing like what people in the rest of the world have gone through but just out of curiosity, has anyone gone through a good shake and been worried about their tanks?

I don't think a tank would take a torque kind of motion very well. What do people who live in the real zones have to keep handy?

It was a pretty awful thought, having to quickly scoop my cats off the floor and have no safe place to put them if I needed to!

[MatsP]

I would have thought that it would be OK as long as the shelves are stable enough.

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Mats

[bronzefry]

Weren't so mini. Some places north of Boston were evacuated yesterday when the furniture began re-arranging itself. Pretty big fault lines around here, surprisingly.
Amanda

[Mike_Noren]

5.5 is a pretty decent-sized quake, it'll crack buildings.

I've actually wondered how to earthquake-proof a tank too... Aren't there any californians around? How do you guys avoid "spontaneous domestic flooding" during quakes?

[Bas Pels]

As far as I know houses in California are build to withstand earthquakes - to a certain extend. Perhaps the houses will therefore also protect the tanks inside

interesting observation, none the less

[apistomaster]

In a former life my work was as a special inspector of reinforced concrete and post-tension concrete floor slab construction designed to meet the Uniform Building codes for construction in high risk earthquake zones. I also have been a 5.5 earthquake when I had a plexiglas 125 gal aquarium reef tank. I was at home when the earthquake struck. The water in the tank began undulating is fairly high wave. The peculiar ways in which plexiglas tanks are largely covered with a bonded piece of plexiglas with access holes cut in the top is all that kept the water from sloshing over the sides. Had the duration of the quake been a few seconds longer I don't know if I would have been spared a flood.
There are not a lot of ways to protect your tanks from quakes but if you happen to have stands holding tanks on 2 or more shelves you should add straps in all three orthagonal directions attached to major structural elements of the building, if possible. That can reduce the chances of a more catastrophic failure involving the collapse of the stand. About the only other thing you can do is carry earthquake insurance because their isn't much else you can do using existing technology and certainly within the budget of most fish keepers.
I lived in Seattle and the construction there must meet the highest standards of the building codes. My job would not have existed were it not for the threat of major quakes. I lived and worked in the the Seattle, WA area. Quakes are frequent occurrences but on average they tend to be in the 4 to 6 range. Not as frequent as Western California but when the Seattle area historically is subject to larger quakes than California so the building designs had to take the worse case scenario into account in design. Quakes in excess of 8 are going to occur at sometime in the future in the Puget Sound area. This is larger by far than any quake recorded in modern history in California.
No structure is earthquake proof. Any designs that even approach that are primarily used in places like major trauma centers. All other buildings are designed to merely hold up well enough to allow occupants to escape safely even if the the building is technically destroyed. Anything more is prohibitively expensive to build. Everyone just plays the odds and hopes they designed well enough to save lives.

[L number Banana]

Bronzefry wrote:

Weren't so mini. Some places north of Boston were evacuated yesterday when the furniture began re-arranging itself. Pretty big fault lines around here, surprisingly.
Amanda

I meant it was 'mini' compared to what others have been through recently
Did damage to certain areas around here too. The huge office buildings in TO and Ottawa were empty in seconds. Since it's not an earthquake zone, I think everyone must have had 9/11 running through their heads. The storm over the last few days brought Ontario some nasty tornadoes - not normal either.

Some people felt it here but I was jumping up and down watching world cup so I may have just not noticed

I'm going to keep a flat spatula and a small bucket under the tanks just in case I ever need to scoop in a hurry. It would be a bad time to get stung!