Weighting/Anchoring plants

[Caenis]

I just got some plants for my tank, and am trying to keep them weighed down with just gravel alone, but it doesn't anchor them sufficiently, and they keep popping back up. Can I weigh them down with the bit of lead that they came home with? Or will this hinder further growth in any way?

 

[bigmacd86]

I am running into similar problems. One thing I did was to simply add 1 more layer of gravel (about 1.25" total now). Personally, I would be careful with lead in water as you may start having traces of lead in your water - something you don't want (one reason many old houses exchange old lead pipes with PVC pipes, for example). I am surprised your plants came with lead but maybe I am missing something.

 

[bigmacd86]

I would imagine you could find a rock heavier than your gravel and anchor your plans with it. As long as you cannot see the rock (if you don't want to), you should be good to go.

 

[Guest]

Can I weigh them down with the bit of lead that they came home with?

Not completely sure what the metal actually is, but it's not just lead. Anyway, YES, you can use it in the tank, no problems. Is kinda ugly though.

How much gravel do you have? usually you shoud have enough to bury the bottom of the plant deep enough to hold it down.

 

[Bearfan]

No problem using the weights, you can actually buy a pack of them at your LFS. They are not harmful to your tank. Just bury the weights in the gravel.