What can I use to cover a bare bottom tank??????????

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Guess I'm missing the point here about the "bare bottom" concept.
If you cover the tiles with sand or gravel, for plants or whatever, why use tiles to begin with?
Help me here, not getting it. I'm old and feeble. :nilly::nilly:
 
Lol ercnan...

I'm a noob so you have to excuse a lot of my thinking and ideas... I have nice concepts in my mind but not enough experience to know what works etc. I'm kind of experimenting (but enjoying)

I have a gravelled tank and it looks nice, but I want to try somethnig different in my new tank.

I know the 'bare bottom' is nice in terms of easy to maintain etc, but I really don't like the look. I'm all for natural looking, and I think some of the natural tiles looks truly amazing...

I like heavily planted though, so was thinking tiled bottom, with gravelled rock pools for plants etc...

Right now it's atoss up between using tiles on the bottom or going with sand... So yeah, just kind of thinking out loud and bouncing ideas around so some of the more experienced guys can tell me what works and what dosen't from their experience, to save me learning the hard way! :)
 
oh sorry also meant to say....

tiles will be on top... but with sand under them purely to make the tank surface level so tiles look good/flat (excuse the confusion there)
 
ercnan;1315471; said:
Guess I'm missing the point here about the "bare bottom" concept.
If you cover the tiles with sand or gravel, for plants or whatever, why use tiles to begin with?
Help me here, not getting it. I'm old and feeble. :nilly::nilly:
Click to expand...

Tiled bottom lets you keep bare bottom function where it's easy to vacum dirt/feces off the bottom, but you don't have to paint the bottom or look at clear glass. And some tile, esp. marble and others look remarkably like dirt/river bottom if you're not looking at it close.

He was talking about putting sand base under the tile to level the bottom because he has such thick silicon in the corners/seams of the tank.
 
Gotcha both. Thanks for dragging me through it.
Must have forgotten the Geritol this morning. :eek::ROFL::screwy:
 
ercnan;1315515; said:
Gotcha both. Thanks for dragging me through it.
Must have forgotten the Geritol this morning. :eek::ROFL::screwy:
Click to expand...

lol It's ok we all have our slow days where we're like "what" and then "ah ok" :ROFL:
 
Why not just cut the tile as close as possible and use a silicone to seal the tiles to the bottom and fill any very small gaps. If you start adding sand your defeating the purpose of the bare bottom setup. You dont want any loose particles other than waste on the bottom so you can just quickly suction it up.
 
i know you guys are talking about tile but i see your really not wanting a barebottom but you want a natural look. you can use color quartz which is similar to sand but better in the fact that sand in a tank is get in the filter and can mess them up. It comes in s-type or t type. i use t- type it is the most similar to sand. and s- type is closer to gravel. they come in different colors so you can get the natural look or not. i chose to go with a smurf blue in my 55 gallon. my fish love it and move it around. the waste settles on top and is easy to sifion out. one 51 pound bag will fill a 55 gal. tank if you want more google color quartz or go to www.3m.com
 
^^^thats no different than a gravel bottom tank. The tile is actually a great idea and i think im going to convert one of my tanks from gravel to this. Its the perfect solution to getting great water quality without making your tank look like its just some glass tub. I think im going to just silicone it to the bottom and then use some slate rock to create a multi level bottom. This rock can just be taken out when siphoning. Great Idea on the Tile!!
 
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