I'm not a fan of bare bottom tanks. I was getting some stuff at lowes and saw a big pile of small clearance tiles for pennies, (seriously like 3 cents per foot square) and I grabbed some and was thinking about grouting them in to the bottom of the couple of hospital tanks I have here.

Has anyone done this? Anyone know why it would be a problem? I've seen outdoor ponds built with fiberglass and tiles, so I was thinking it shouldn't be an issue, but I'm not finding anything online, or any of the books I have that say it would be a bad thing.

Hmm not sure. I do know ceramic and porcelin tiles are made with a lot of polymer chemicals but they are baked at very high temps. You also have to think about grouting options. I am not sure if aquarium sealant would stick to the tiles my guess is no. Underwater your options would be limites especially in a enclosed ecosystem like a tank. I think that in a pond would be ok because there is a lot more oxygen and surface area.

Sounds like a good idea but I am just not sure how it would work out and not sure if I have ever seen it done in an aquarium.

I've used slate tiles in aquariums. I've never tried ceramic or porcelain. My concern has always been that they are porous and the face is stained or dyed (if I understand the process correctly) and I had no way of knowing what could leach into the water long term. Water can have a very degenerative effect on a lot of materials over time.

WYite

Hrm. A friend of mind does crazy glass art stuff. (Windows and whatnot) maybe I can save these ones for something else, and get some solid glass ones from her. Either that or keep an eye out for slate or maybe see if there are any decent scraps to be had from the marble/granite place near me..

For smaller turtle hospital tanks I've used plain tiles for most everything. Unknown as to what they're made of though, they were a big box of plain white 6 inch ones I trash picked from a construction site. I always liked them since I could run them through the dishwasher between treatments.

test a small piece of it in water you already know the parameters of.

this will show if its going to leech anything into the water.

I know terra cotta tiles will be fine as will ceramic however the coatings are what is concerning the lot of us fin addicts.

I would feel safe with natural stone, personally ceramic and or porcelin are made up of too many unknown chemicals thats my 2 cents.

I know a guy who ships out shale via flat rate box prices only.

Where are you from St.Felony? there are ALOT of rivers in this country(USA) that are slate bed rivers. collect, steam clean and bada bing bada boom

I agree that the stone tiles would probably be better. As WGA pointed out terra cotta should be fine also. They also make epoxy grout which may work well for the grouting. It may have to cure for a while though before you put fish in there. Not too sure.

I was looking at an epoxy/fiberglass/something pool grout, that is supposed to be waterproof and chlorine/chemical neutral, or so claims the package.

The cheap-o tiles I picked up look like glazed terra cotta. The backs of them at least look like it, I'm not sure if I could confirm it though.

As far as collecting rocks/slate from rivers, it's more a matter of time than anything else. While it could be fun to make a day out of it, I'm not sure if any of my local rivers are slate bed.

On the plus side, the fancy granite/marble store near me said they have tons of scraps from cutting out the insets for sinks and the like and that I was welcome to any of it I wanted, since they usually had to pay to have it hauled away somewhere.

PM me your general metro area and I can go from there, neighbor is a DNR agent and has that info on hand.