What Do You Go By?

[Ludwig Venter]

Use either just state if it's UK OR US gallons.

South Africa, Litres, Meters and Degrees Celcius.

 

[Schmill]

I have found that for the most part if it is not 'declared' then in aquatics US gallons are used.

Personally though, in the Uk, and certainly people of my generation, use such a mixture of measurements that I will ALWAYS specify what is being used. Just some examples below:

I'm 6ft tall, my waist measurement is in inches and I weigh myself in Stones and pounds.
I weigh ingrediants in grams and kg.
I drives for MILES using litres of petrol, and measure the efficiency in miles per gallon (uk), but buy cable by the meter and kilometer.
I measure fish tank water and medication in ml, litres and US gallons, but buy my milk by the pint, and always make a half pint of gravy or custard.
In the pub I'll order a pint of beer, but for home I'll by a 2 litre bottle of coke.

I guess what it amounts to is I tend to use whatever is most suitable.
I know how many inches are in a foot, and can usually remember ounces to a pound, but that's as far as my imperial knowledge goes, whereas metric is fairly self explanitory.
If I am measuring a pipe diameter it will be in milimeter, but the length of the pipe will be in feet.

As a rough rule, I seem (from the above), to use metric for small measurements and imperial for larger ones, but anyhoo, it's so mixed up I always sspecify unless it's immediately obvious

 

[sami the cichlid]

wow, lotta replies! well just sayin beacuse a online conversion gave my 40l either a US 11g or UK 9g! bit of a difference

 

[LellowFish]

I use either US Gallons or Litres depending on what people ask for. Especially on this forum as people are from all over!

 

[aly_starh]

Litres, if not then, Uk Gallons

 

[OldMan47]

I entertain my college professor daughter when I measure ml per US gallon of Prime or worry about getting the temperature right and don't care if it is degrees F or C. The thermometer has both on it and I look for about a certain spot in the green band for most of my tanks. That point happens to be about 25C or 77F but I don't care what the number is. When I mix my fertilizers for tank plants, high tech tanks, I use mg per quart. I don't let a little thing like units bother me. After you have dealt with the FPS system as long as I have, with teaspoons per tablespoon per ounce per pint, etc. and ratios of 2 or 3 or 8 along the way, a nice simple system like CGS looks great. Ratios that I can divide by 10s strikes me as a great system but flexibility equates with sanity in my world view.
She tells me that the young people in college that she teaches have a hang up about their units and insist on always converting things to a unit they are comfortable with. I just use the units that work in each application and never worry that I am mixing systems. I have a pipette that shows ml so I measure ml per gallon because I use a 5 US gallon bucket for water changes. Why convert, it is all good.