Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok, i will admit i'm currently keeping my guy on carbonate sand. He's fully an adult, and i hand feed him to reduce him grabbing any sand when eating. But i think i'm going to switch to tile if i can find a good way to clean it. Like, do people just lay down loose tiles, and hope no ones toes and what have you get caught when they shift due to not being grouted down?, or do people secure their tiles, if so, how do you get poop off, and pick up cricket legs etc? i do not want to use paper towel, this is a veiwing tank, so all suggestions regarding tile would be appreciated

Melanie

I switched from Sand to Tile then to a rack system with paper substrate. When I had the tiles, I had extra tiles that I would swap out with the dirty ones, making the transition in the tank the easiest and quickest possible. I didn't want to stress out my leos too much.

My tank is a 20G Long which measures, I believe, 12"x29.5" on the inside floor. So I just bought 6"x6" tiles and had to cut off half an inch, with a tile cutter, on the two at one end so they would fit. At first I liked it, but the time spent cleaning and dissenfecting two tanks and about 16 tiles, was too long. That's why I switched to a rack system with paper substrate.

I little tip: You may notice that the silicon sealer in the bottom of the tank creates a rounded corner at the bottom of the tank. This makes it hard to line the tiles up. What I did was buy some styrofoam insulation from Home depot and cut a peice the size of the tank bottom. Once you do that, you can wedge it into the tank floor and this will create a flat surface 1/2 inch above the floor. This will give you sharper angles that the tiles fit into better. The styrofoam also protects the tank incase you drop a tile while moveing one.

You can buy a package for about $5. It comes with 6-8 sheets that are plenty big. Just cut it with a sharp razor blade.

-Jason
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LEOS:
1.0 Tremper Giant Albino (Diesel)
0.1 High Yellow (Ayla)
0.1 Hypo (Red Sonja)
0.0.3 Juvies (Dremel, Ryobi & Mufasa)
R.I.P. (Conan)

CATS:
2.0 Maine Coons (Sam & Tye)

FIANCÉE:
0.1 Tall Blonde (Christine)

I switched my gecko from a loose substrate to lenolium a few months ago and he seems quite happy. I have a 10 gallon tank for a jouvenile leo. I went to Lowe's and bought 2 squares of lenolium (you can get them in a nice sand-like grain pattern). I measured his tank and cut them, then wedged them into the tank. There is no gap between the tiles, but some on the side (but it's not hard to pick up the tile and remove any particles). What I do is I spot clean where he poops everyday when I feed him and thoroughly clean the tiles once in a while (since he always poops in the same corner). It's worked out great so far and is so easy to keep clean. The problem with actual tile is that it's thick and thus difficult to heat, especially with an under-tank heater. Linolium has no problem passing the heat.

Hope this helps. Good luck and fire away if you have any further questions.

Beth

Well any how, put play sand between cracks. As for cleaning up poop, i suggest some terrain cleaner; just pick up the poop, spray the spot where the poop was, wipe it and your done.

maybe this is a really stupid option, but if i took my guy out, could i vacume the cage with one of the smaller nozzels?
i don't mind picking up poop, but cricket legs and wings would prolly get kinda annoying, and would prolly slide off if i'm trying to pull out linoliam, or ceramic tiles.
anyway just a thought?

Melanie

Yeah, whatever works. I tend to just wet a paper towel and that picks everything up from the linolium very nicely. How many geckos do you have? I've never really had a problem with mine leaving cricket debris all over the tank. Maybe your crickets are too big for your gecko. Smaller ones are more nutricious anyway and the crickets that you're feeding the gecko shouldn't be larger than his head.

Good luck!

Beth