Photos/Info on tiled tank bottoms?

[cvermeulen]

I've seen a few of you with tiled tank bottoms, and I really like the look. I'm building a 600gal right now to house some big catfish, and I don't want to run a plain black bottom on the tank, but gravel vaccing a 4x8 area would be a nightmare, and several of my fish move gravel around creating bare spots that look crappy when the gravel is a different color than the bottom.

I want to use heavy 12x12 inch tiles on the bottom of this tank, either just setting them down and relying on their weight to keep them in place, or else actually siliconing them down and filling the gaps with silicone as well. I'm looking for examples of this kind of setup, and some feedback on your tile experience. Like, can I actually just set them there and have them stay put? Will debris get trapped between and beneath them, polluting the water? Will a few plecos be able to keep the algae down on the tiles?

I also considered adding a small amount of sand to cushion the tiles and fill the gaps like paver sand, and just a bit to drift and form little piles in the tank to add a bit of underwater effect (I don't want my tank to look like a submerged bathroom). I'd worry about little anaerobic pockets in the sand beneath the tiles, but I have a hard time imagining this to be a problem. Anyone got any thoughts on that?

 

[cvermeulen]

Really, nobody? I know some of you are using tiles for tank bottoms. Here is the tank, for those of you not following the build thread:

 

[Cashlaw]

I have used 12" x 12" slate tiles from Home Depot. The ones I got were just slate, no sealant or felt backing on them, and cheap! Maybe $1.50 each.

They seem to work fine, and don't seem to need any special prep beyond a rinse in dechlorinated water to get the dust off. I put them on egg crate on the bottom of the tank. The only thing to watch out for would be the sharp corners nicking glass as you put them in.

A nice thing about these tiles: if one doesn't quite fit, or if you want to go for the "shattered rock" look, with plants growing up between cracks in the stone . . . just wrap the tile in an old towel, pound with a hammer once or twice, and the big tile becomes several smaller tiles.

I haven't tried siliconing them together, yet, but I think that has been done a lot to make caves and cichlid structures. If they are going on the bottom of the tank, then I would not silicon them. They should be heavy enough to stay put.

 

[Mattyou]

Tile works fine with or without silicone, without is easiest setting up and removing, and if you lay a very thin layer of rock it will look great.

 

[matt.beyer]

i would use granite tile for the bottom, and just set them in the tank as close together as they can, leaving no grout joint. granite is a little bit more spendy, but it's very smooth and you can pick which colors you like. slate is uneven and all of the pieces are different sizes, so butting them together would be kinda difficult. good luck