Supposedly the white is (almost?) pure calcium based, while any other color or color-vein is due impurities or other minerals. Some of which could be bad, but you'd never know unless it was tested.

I use broken seashells, never thought of using tiles. Worried though because it might affect a nano more than a larger tank. Silica is bad for your tank, right?

I use this also, though I am wondering is there is any upside or downside to the fact that marble is not porous compared to aragonite frag plugs which are porous. marble is one of the least porous of all natural stones.

one upside is I am able to scrape off the coral (zoa) easily from the tile when I wanted to move the coral directly to the LR.

I'll have to look at this stuff the next time I go to lowes or home depot.

these marble squares are great and they fit great into egg craate

I thought this was a great idea and put lots of frags on them, but when I traded a bunch to the lfs, they had a harder time selling them on the square tiles. Even round ones were better for some reason. The work fine for zoanthids when they grow to the point where you can't see the tile but I think I'll stick to the baby bottle nipple molded plugs I've been making. I also found that at lest some of the marble tiles seemed to promote algae growth more than the aragonite plugs.

ScottyReef/Prop,

I went to Lowes/HD and found the marble squares. I found 5/8th" and 1" squares on a mesh. They are called tumbled marble. But there's very few white ones. Are the ones you are using white? I thought the colored ones have impurities in them. If you have a stock # of what you guys used, that would be helpful and I will know for sure which ones you guys are using.

i will get it to you later today after i get off work. and no the ones i have arnt all white some are a brownish color


***EDIT***

here i found it

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=prod...&lpage=none

Thanks!

Those are exactly the ones I saw at Lowe's yesterday. They are really tiny. I'll try them out.

I was at Meijer a few days and they had a bag of white marble chips on clearance for 32 cents. This bag weights 20 pounds. I bought the bag. They are very white with some chaulkiness to it. I know someone has tried marble chips. Do they work well? These would need to be washed thoroughly to get rid of the chaulk if I were to try it. I do not see any other colors in the chips. Which leads me to believe this is fairly pure marble.

Yes I bought the 2" honed squares to put my mother colonies on in my frag tank this week. I was hoping it will be really easy to move them to LR or Marble chips prior to sell.

Thanks prop for the tip on these stones.

Steve

Maybe you could score and shape the tiles with a knife or file? the edges or corners is you want to sell them. Just a thought and i think i'll be using these when my monti starts getting big and strong

Yeah I started using those almost a year after I started using the larger tiles.
Now those and ceramic plugs are all I use for zoa's and sps frag.
I use the larger ones for small colonies, and leathers.
I have a 14 inch green digitata colony mounted. healthy and growing strong on ONE of those small tiles actually. Its nuts ! Looks like a fat woman with one tiny leg

They sure do save a lot of space don't they !
I held off on telling any one about them because every time I get a good idea some one try selling it. The plugs I told about here ( larger tiles) a local LFS is selling now !
Can you believe that shiat ! He buys the same ones form the same place and picks out all the white ones. for resale and uses the off colored for growing out. Problem is he sells them for roughly 4 times what they cost you at Lowes !
Disgusts me honestly. I mean shiat man it woul dbe one thing if he were making them like firring ceramic or something ya know. But how would you feel if you were one of his comstomers and purchased them then visited Lowes to pick up some grout and saw a whol 144 peice matt for $13.99 when you just paid $30.00 for 50 of them ?
It takes all kinds I guess..

its about making a fast buck only for a lot of people. I dont think the reef gods will smile when he could have just said where he got them...

well that really shysty that a LFS would do that. I went to a LFS in Charleston WV were there ### discs were made from plaster of paris i dont know if thats reef safe but i dont want to try it

Are you serious?
Plaster will DEFINITELY dissolve in water LOL ! Even if they are coated they will eventually break down and one day your tank will be flooded with milky white.

yeap

Proof I had to buy one to show everyone, it was $1. well i my not be plaster but it is powdery so it anyone guess

unfired ceramic clay or fired in low heat at the very least I would say.

do you think it would be ok in the long run? I still have my doubts

if it was unfired, it would just come apart in water, or even partially fired. how powdery is it?

well i have rinsed it and after it drys there still is a bit of a residue i cant strape it in with my finger nail but it will come off little by little with a knife

i wouldn't risk it, even if you had it in for a week with not much action you could see them all fall apart and soil yer tank when you got home.

Well unless ceramic is glazed you will be able to scrape it off fairly easily if its fired or not.
So that's no worry really. I would place one in a bowl of old SW for a day or two and see if it softens or starts "milking" LOL !

Here's a pic of two different sizes found at Lowes

top is 5/8x5/8 and bottom is 1x1.

i bought the 5/8x5/8 and they fell right through my eggcrate from Lowes. i think prop said that HD eggcrate is smaller though, fwiw...

i had the same problem when i made my prop tank and all i did was super glue some pond netting to the bottom of the egg crate

That's why I think I said to take a small plug with you and test it before you bought the egg crate because size varies from batch to batch on the egg crate.

any suggestions for getting the glue off the bottom of the tiles. I was using sandpaper to get it off on some, wanted to se if there was an easier way

Prop says to boil it and the glue will rub right off.

got it, thanks for the help PBUEHH. sorry if I missed that info before

I soaked a few in some old tank water over night and this morning the glue came off super easy

Yeah that works to, but if your in a hurry you can just microwave them in a bowl of water.

Just a heads up for Canadians. Finally, we get a better deal:

Rona has these tiles, they're all white, a little porous, travertine (marble), and they're cheaper than the ones at Lowes. $10.50 per sheet.

unfortunately, they are too small for the rack from mag-racks.com. oh well, i just bought the larger ones and they are fine for my purposes.


i don't even bother taking the glue off and i haven't noticed a problem in the 6+ months i've been using them. i only have around 20 or so in my tank though, so it may be a problem if you use a lot more.

Excellent Idea!
I was going to do the paper cup/concrete method, bus is yet again, even easier/cheaper!

Good find, thanks for sharing... 2 years ago LOL.

I manged to find this stuff (finally)

Steps on how to clean.
1: Soak them in boiling water - The glue will soften and the tiles will fall off from mesh
2: While they are still hot, pickup a tile and wipe off the glue. A single swipe should be sufficient
3: Give the tiles a bath in vinegar and this should clean up any left over glue residue - You will notice the tiles bubbling like crazy and after an hour the surface will be full of scum. I let mine soak for 4 hours.

employeeee discount!

Dont waste your time, the glue is reef safe. Trust me.

yes! cheap for canadians, rona here i come! easiest frag plugs i've seen.

hah, just come to my lowes, i unload the truck (great part time job) ill break a whole pallet for you with the forklift then you will have lifetime supply , great idea by the way

glad i found this thread! great idea thanks!

wait a minute, is this a canadian lowes???? lol, freebies pwn!

o no, this is only canadian special?

I just do a quick swirl on a sheet of 60-grit sandpaper and most of the glue comes right off. No matter how reef safe it is, I'd still rather just have both sides free of glue.

you got pm prop

Answered.

Your welcome guys !
I take more information from you then I give believe me

I wondered where it all went!


Thief!

Sorry to resurrect this thread. I tried cutting this with my el cheapo rotary tool and can't cut the tile. Maybe I need a real dremel or can anyone recommend a cutting tool for this?

edit:

Would this item work:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=93211

get a diamond wheel bit, and if its rechargable, make sure its juiced up.

so i want to get the sheet of little white tiles from lowes? is there a specific name to the ones you guys got? travertine? ?

I think they are called tumbled marble. It will say on the back somewhere. I have used different plugs, but the lowe's tiles are definitely the best for your buck, the only problem is that they are a bit heavy.