Tiles as a substrate

[Slough Shark]

Good idea nyb. The gases wouldn't build up if the tiles were stacked then? By offset, you mean like a brick wall right?

To stop the shifting- what if I could connect the two or three tiles with plastic and silicone so that they won't shift? Or will I still have gas issues?

[Slough Shark]

I think I have settled on siliconing the tiles to styrofoam and covering the gaps with sand. Buoyancy shouldn't be an issue since I will have lots of rocks and driftwood in this tank.

[Sam Chicklets]

I would use them for the sides too, but the look of the gaps siliconed shut isn't natural enough. I guess I could stick some sand in when the silicone is still wet, but it seems too permanent a thing to do.

I did not mean up the sides of the tank, I meant seal the edges that but up to the sides.

Also if you want to raise it you could put a layer of mortar under the tiles.

[Slough Shark]

That makes more sense Nick, but still it's too permanent for what I'd like. Mortar would make the tank quite a bit heavier wouldn't it? And again it would be pretty solid in the tank- tough to get out.

[Shai]

This sounds like a really interesting idea. Please post photos if you can!

[Slough Shark]

Will do. I'm headed out to the cabin for a week on Saturday, I should be getting started on the project after I get back.

[Ross]

i have used tiles before as substrate and they work great, however the first time i did this i just bought them from a home depot and when you buy them you have to make sure they dont have anything on them because if you use the ones with the white powder residue on the bottoms and dont clean them properly...well goodbye fishies. good luck though as they do work nicely if used correctly

[Slough Shark]

Thanks Ross,

I am picking up the sand today, so I should have them in the tank within about 3 days. We'll see how she goes!!

[Jilly McJillerson]

...My cousin had a tank, or maybe a paladarium where she siliconed some slate tiles to clear pipe to create a false floor, the water came up about a cm over the tile to give her red bellied toads a place to perch, and a place to swim underneith. It was just guppies and froggies, but it was a nice effect and she never had a problem with the tile, so I think you should be ok.

[Slough Shark]

Sounds interesting Jilly, I'll keep that in mind for my paludarium.

Ok, so I have cut the styrofoam, siliconed the tiles down, and "grouted" it with sand and silicone. I am just waiting for it to cure now. Here is the progress so far:

The sand in the gap looks like crap now, but I think I can put loose sand over it in the tank and it should look okay. Or I can take the whole thing out, dry it, and silicone more sand in around it.

We'll see how it looks in the tank!

Taylor

[Slough Shark]

You can see the end result here:

http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=19870

Thanks for looking and all the help everyone!

Taylor

[Shai]

I have a question on this topic. Let's say you want to use tile in a portion of the tank but raise it off the bottom, like in this picture:

If all the edges where the tile meets the tank (walls and bottom) are properly siliconed, the "no fish" zone in the picture should be dry and only contain air. If this is the case, you wouldn't have to worry about any built-up gas or crud, correct? Is siliconing it a suitable workaround to trying to find a material to fill in the "no fish" zone area?

Edited July 17, 2008 by Shai

[Slough Shark]

Filling it with air would be ok as long as the siliconing job is totally air tight IMO. But I would just carve a styrofoam box and silicone that to the bottom, then silicone the tiles onto it.

[Shai]

My thinking was that I wanted to avoid styrofoam so that I wouldn't have buoyancy issues. But if I'm going to silicone it to the tank anyway I guess that won't be a problem.

So where can I get a block of styrofoam that is 36"L x 4"W x 2"H? Actually, it would have to be slightly less than those dimensions to accommodate the thickness of the tile itself.

[Slough Shark]

Well you can just buy the sheets of pink styro at Home Depot or some other Hardware store. If the sheets are not thick enough, you can just glue or silicone two sheets together, then sand them to the desired width. But the sheets are very large, so you won't need to worry about the other two dimentions.

And any left over chunks of styro that's left over will likely be used in another project. I find it comes in handy!