Tiled Aquariums

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Tahn

Tahn

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 5, 2016
209
68
31
Central NJ
For those of you using ceramic/porcelain tiles as substitute for bare bottom tanks, I didn't think anything would accumulate under them, but I checked today after about a month of having them, and there was a sh*t load of sh*t accumulated under the tiles.

I decided to remove all of them and just go bare bottom, had to do about an 80% water change in order to get rid of all the decomposing particles.

I thought my Oscars were acting strange (barely swimming and not eating) and I'm pretty sure this was the reason why. Did a 80% water change with double dose of seachem stress guard, triple dose of prime, and aquarium salt.
 
Tahn said:
triple dose of prime
Click to expand...
Hello; This is something picked up from reading threads and posts in this forum. If Prime does not have things such as chlorine, chloramine and such to work on it will use oxygen. Not sure if a triple dose is enough to reduce Oxygen to problem levels.

Out of curiosity why use the "seachem stress guard, triple dose of prime, and aquarium salt".
I likely would have vacuumed out the detritus and added the fresh water only. May I ask if you will share knowledge about these choices??
 
skjl47 said:
Hello; This is something picked up from reading threads and posts in this forum. If Prime does not have things such as chlorine, chloramine and such to work on it will use oxygen. Not sure if a triple dose is enough to reduce Oxygen to problem levels.

Out of curiosity why use the "seachem stress guard, triple dose of prime, and aquarium salt".
I likely would have vacuumed out the detritus and added the fresh water only. May I ask if you will share knowledge about these choices??
Click to expand...

The stress guard and salt was for one of my Oscars who has an open injury that I've been treating with stress guard and salt for a week now, it's been getting better because of it. Prime was because I was afraid of removing too much beneficial bacteria from removing the tiles.
 
Broken down wastes will sift down and slowly build up underneath the tiles unless each one is sealed in place with silicone and I know of no one who has done this.I had a chance to do so but didn't a few years ago after my tiled 265 sprung a leak and I had to drain and reseal it.
I'm not sure what your Oscar's problem was but I suspect that regular water changes with vac suctioning along the tile seams would keep the water parameters in check.
 
I tried tiles for a couple months, lifted one and saw all the crap... never doing tiles again. I'm sure that since they are contained, and so many people have them, you can still keep the water parameters alright. I just didn't like the idea of all that poop down there, and not being able to move the tile without it whirl-pooling out
 
I've seen some tile designs I really liked. I wasn't sure how to go about the edges of the aquarium where the silicone is though. Currently, I am bare bottom and the girls like to climb into the cabinet and look up at the fish. I'm able to check on my eel as well.
 
We have a tiled bottom, and have had no problems. We used marine grade silicone to seal the tiles in place. The effect is nice, white bottom black back.
 
Gourami Swami said:
I tried tiles for a couple months, lifted one and saw all the crap... never doing tiles again. I'm sure that since they are contained, and so many people have them, you can still keep the water parameters alright. I just didn't like the idea of all that poop down there, and not being able to move the tile without it whirl-pooling out
Click to expand...
A common thing I've noticed is that in a lot of overstocked, bare-bottom tanks in the Chinatown vendor areas (classic, there's a whole thread about it) have tile bottoms! So do a lot of the so called "monster fish keepers" that severely overstock their unnatural tanks... Hmm.
 
DanHOB said:
We have a tiled bottom, and have had no problems. We used marine grade silicone to seal the tiles in place. The effect is nice, white bottom black back.
Click to expand...
Really? Success is success, I suppose. Keep us posted on how that goes, maybe. I'm interested just in case I ever make a real live quarantine tank (not just whatever tank I'm not using, whoops).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom