Which tile to use on floor

[tacocat]

Which type of tile/flooring would you recommend under a large tank (200g or so)? I'm looking at slate, but fear the surface maybe too irregular.

[complexbooger]

which type of stand are you using?
one of those metal stands? i think the legs would act at chizels for slate.
a stand with even weight would be best i think. just throwing my 2 cents in.

[reefkeeper2]

Tile comes in grades of strength. Porcelain tile is strongest. For my stand I tiled all around the stand as well as the floor so it would match. The concrete blocks I used do not stand on the tile but on the subfloor. Since the tile looks like slate, its surface is not regular and the weight would not be evenly distributed along the surface of the tile. If the tile was smooth I wouldn't have worried and the stand could have been placed on top.

[Johnsteph10]

The only issue with tiling is that the thinset cement does not reach full strength until app. a month after it is put down.....the stand would have to be even to distribute weight across the tiles as ceramic/porcelain/slate, etc. can crack with point pressure even if professionally installed.

I did as above and just tiled around the stand. You can't tell!

[thor32766]

my 220 gallon on a wood stand i built, has been on my tile for 6 months and never a problem. just my experience

[Konadog]

tacocat, I have my metal stand on a tile floor, but the tile is textured and irregular. What I did is put a bunch of those Teflon furniture glide pads every 15" or so around the bottom. This made it very easy to slide the tank/stand around when empty, but even better is that when I filled it, it settled on the pads evenly all the way around.

[tacocat]

Cool, thanks for the help. We are considering epoxy aggregate also, but my wife likes the look of slate. I like your idea Ken. Kinda like styrofoam on the bottom.

John. I was afraid of that. I suppose I could wait a few weeks.

Tiling around the tank seems to be the easiest and safest bet. If I do that though, it will increase the chances of us moving in the next 10 years by 100%. :D

BTW, Ken, how is Scott's tank holding up? I should have bought that thing when Scott first offered it. You bought it about three weeks before I decided to jump.

[kyleka.]

Porcelin tile

[GMFett]

slate is fine. if you go to a tractor supply company just buy a sheet of industrial grade rubber to put under the legs. worked great for me.
mf :bum:

[Konadog]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7293885#post7293885 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tacocat
BTW, Ken, how is Scott's tank holding up? I should have bought that thing when Scott first offered it. You bought it about three weeks before I decided to jump. I love it! You can read all about it here (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=759531). Did you see when Scott was selling his? It was an awsome deal that lasted about an hour!

The cool thing about the Teflon glides was that they are full of foam tape, so they did work exactly like foam under the tank did. I also think that slate, as long as it's thick enough, would work just fine.

[bradleyj]

I have porcelin on the floor and just put slate on the walls so I wouldn't ever have to paint.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v714/tileman/100_8081Small.jpg

I bought algeaguys tank last month, but I'm in the process of cleaning it up a bit and adding some extra flow in a closed loop.
It seems like it takes forever.:)

[Konadog]

There's Scott's tank!!! One heck of a deal!

The slate on the wall looks great.

[tacocat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7299061#post7299061 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Konadog
I love it! You can read all about it here (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=759531). Did you see when Scott was selling his? It was an awsome deal that lasted about an hour!

The cool thing about the Teflon glides was that they are full of foam tape, so they did work exactly like foam under the tank did. I also think that slate, as long as it's thick enough, would work just fine.

Actually, I was hanging out with Roland, and Scott at Garrick's house, and Scott told me he was selling his tank. I believe he offered it up on two occassions. Everyone talked him out of it the first time.

My wife and I looked at each other and said, "Too big." The next thing I know, we are moving to a bigger house. I went looking for his tank, and I see that you started a 225g Starphire thread.:mad2:

BTW, my stand is wood. It's a nice custom bird's eye maple stand. Ken, we discussed your idea tonight while we were moving a tank, and we can't find any flaws in the logic.

bradleyj, I like the slate in the background, but that won't work in our room. I am probably going to do a small black acrylic backsplash.

I'll see if I can locate a nice flat slate or natural stone tile.

[Konadog]

I was talking about the other Scott, Scott Fellman and the above posted tank. I was one that tried to talk Scott Berman out of selling his tank too, even when I bought it.

Good luck on your tile floor. Do it right the first time as you don't want to move the tank to do it over!

[tacocat]

Thanks,

What was Scott Fellman selling? So Ken, are you using slate tile?

[Konadog]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7302296#post7302296 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tacocat
What was Scott Fellman selling?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7299122#post7299122 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bradleyj
Ihttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v714/tileman/100_8081Small.jpg

I bought algeaguys tank last month, You can see the deal here (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=813056)

My tile is normal ceramic tile, but is the uneven type. It has texture to it. You can kind of see the pads and the texture in this picture:


http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/9086Sump_and_Stand.JPG

[tacocat]

To those who tiled around your tanks,

How did you seal the tile so that the water didn't seep through? Was the grout sufficeint to stop it?

[Saltybob]

What would you do without RC?
As long as you go with a tile like porcelin or ceramic you dont have to seal the tile just the grout. Granite or slate you should seal the whole floor a few days after its grouted. Most tile has the ratings stated on the box for water absorbtion.
Im here for you man.

[Sk8r]

Real slate scratches and breaks something fierce.

The synthetics they have out are tougher. Some of the sheet snap-togethers like Pergo also come in a tile version. We put the 'wood' strips in the kitchen, and it handled heavy appliances quite handily, including shoving them around.
Drawback: water can get under it.
Advantage: you can unbuild such a floor in under an hour to dry out a major spill.
Linoleum fits tightly and resists spills, if professionally laid.
Drawback: a tendency to dent and scratch.
Wood: I wouldn't, with an aquarium.
Carpet: not if I had a choice (I don't.) The pad underneath is a sponge...

[tacocat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7308576#post7308576 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Saltybob
What would you do without RC?
As long as you go with a tile like porcelin or ceramic you dont have to seal the tile just the grout. Granite or slate you should seal the whole floor a few days after its grouted. Most tile has the ratings stated on the box for water absorbtion.
Im here for you man.

Nice, I forgot that you did this for a living. I'll give you a call later, but not from the house of ill-reception.

sk8r, thanks.

[tacocat]

Anybody here try marble or granite tile? It looks like a PITA to get it nice and level.

[Maximus]

This is a great post! I love the idea of laying tile around the tank. Why didn't I think of that! My tank is currently in a carpeted room and I can't stand the carpet. I'm going to pull it and lay tile around the tank and leave the carpet underneath the stand. Thanks for the ideas!

[nyvp]

I just put a thin pcs of that silver insulation on the tile floor as a bit of buffer and that's it looks great


http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h310/nyvp/CIMG0389.jpg



I used the same 20"x20" rectified porcelain tile that I used on rest of house

[slumpysix]

The main objective is floor preparation before the tile/slate is set. If you are going over a concrete floor then a regular firm set product will do well to stick it to the floor. If you are putting the tile on wood floor then a cement board is the only way to go. 1/2" minimum and screw/glue the heck out of it. That way the floor will be nice and solid to accept the tile. Sounds like a great project to do.....
just my 1.0005 cents :)

[tacocat]

Thanks for the help. I went with Mazzari's "Cortina" tile from HD. It's a porcelian tile. Although it was 16" tile, laying it was pretty easy because the foundation was pretty flat and had no cracks.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d96/hectina/P1010029.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d96/hectina/P1010038.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d96/hectina/P1010050.jpg

[Scuba Dog]

I choose marble.

<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v627/ScubaDog/Project%20from%20heck/117_1756.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

[tacocat]

I heard marble was a bear to lay. It needs cement board and almost perfectly level floor.

The stuff does look good.

[Scuba Dog]

tacocat

It wasent that bad to put down. LOL but sure was rough on the knees and lower back. My home is built on a slab. The marble is remington beige , around four bucks a square foot.

[invincible569]

Anyone have water leak through the tile and leave stains?