tile heating

[amv123]

i just bought 3 12x12 tile pieces to replace the sand in my tank. Ijust have a quick question about the heating, i have read that some people put sand under the tile to help hold the heat, do you think this is necessary. One piece of tile should cover about all the the uth surface area. So i guess my question does tile hold heat well enough without the sand or should i leave some sand underneath and if so could i just put sand under the heated side and no the entire tank?

 

[ordinaryoddity]

i have tile, and i think sand would actually transfer the heat less thoroughly...

i have an 11"x10" uth under one piece of tile cut down to 11.5"x12" (i had to trim the extra 1/2in because the glue on the inside edges of my tank kept the tile from actually laying fully flat on the glass)

hope it helps
andrew

 

[rhino43grr]

mine heats fine without sand underneath, i have aluminum foil on the bottom side of my uth to try to reflect the heat back up toward the tank since the stand i'm using is open underneath.

 

[OhioGecko]

You really don't need to use the sand but it is good to level the tile and for filling in between pieces of tiles and the aquarium walls.

 

[amv123]

thanks for the advice everyone my tiles are actually too big at the moment so i need to figure out a way to cut them down but the sand will be hand in filling gaps