New substrate, which one looks best?

[stevezx2002]

decided to switch from gravel to bare bottoms in my 2 75 gallon tanks since Polys have been known to die from eating gravel. I dont like the look of the bare glass bottom even though the bottom of my tanks are painted black so I thought I would use tiles on the bottom.

I had originaly thought slate would look good, but when I went to Lowes all the slate tiles were cracked, had holes or just didnt look good. So I bought some dark brown porcelin tiles that were 18X18 for the first tank. After I cut them (not as easy as I thought it would be using a angle grinder) and cracked a few, I put them in they looked a lot lighter with the tank lights on.

A week later I went to a different Lowes and the slate tiles they had looked good so I picked up some for the 2nd tank. They cut much easier/cleaner, but they were 12X12 tiles so I had to make a few more cuts. It looks really good, but I dont know if it looks so good that I need to change the first tank.

Porcelin Tiles:

Slate Tiles:

The reasons for the change over:

 

[Delhezi222]

I think the slate tiles look much better, they'll probably also help to bring out the polys' colors much more than the porcelain tiles would.

 

[JamesF]

+1
The slate looks better. Although if you could get even darker, I'd try that.

 

[stevezx2002]

I like the color variety with the slate, brakes up the plainness a little bit. I had alot of fake plants in the tanks before that the Clown Loaches, Delhezi and Endeli liked to hide in. Removing the plants has actually made them much more active, but I would like to get some more drift wood to give a little more shelter.

 

[FAT daddy]

The grey slate looks *****in'! I would think that it would be pain in the ass to lift when cleaning because you''ll probably get alot of silt and other crap caught under it. Unless you use a plunger to lift it straight out of the tank it would be hard to get a grip.

 

[Bderick67]

Looks good I like the slate better

 

[libayn]

i use porcelin tile but those 2 pics i have to say the slate looks best imo.

 

[crisper]

That slate looks pretty good.

 

[benzjamin13]

Slate