lead weights

[hashbaz]

Are the plant weights made of lead? Is it any special lead alloy? I'm kind of wondering if fishing weights can be used for the extra heavy weight problems.

Also does lead disolve into water? They don't use lead pipes anymore, but fishermen are allowed to use lead weights in streams used for drinking water.

 

[Toirtis]

Are the plant weights made of lead?

Actually, no...usually zinc.

I'm kind of wondering if fishing weights can be used for the extra heavy weight problems.

Perhaps, but I would give them a good coating of epoxy first.

but fishermen are allowed to use lead weights in streams used for drinking water.

No longer in many places, and more provinces and states are adding to the list each year.

 

[vega]

Generally, those is made out of tin or zink-tin mixture. No lead (unless the some sleazy maker try to cut the cost).

HTH

 

[TankGirl]

If you look in the tackle section of a sporting goods store you will see they have "lead free" weights for fishermen to use now.

 

[malkore]

I just want to chime in that plant weights usually aren't even needed. If you have a proper depth of substrate and plant the stems deep enough, they shouldn't come up-rooted unless you have some really active digging fish.

 

[shalu]

Actually, there are two kinds on the market. One kind is zinc alloy, another is true lead as stated on the package(much heavier, made by Lee). I have both in my tank. Some people worry about heavy metal leaching into water killing fish. Well, my discus and cardinals are fine after 6 months, but I do use water conditioner at water change. The reason I use plant weights is for ease of maintanance: a) I don't need to worry about plant uprooting/replanting b) for weekly trimming, I simply pull them up by the bunches and cut the bottom half and then drop them back. That way my tank always looks good even right after trimming. To create a bushier look, I might separate one plant species into several bunches. If you look at my tank, you would not know that I am using plant weights

If you really want to use plant weights but still worry about heavy metal, you can a) dip them in "Plastidip" to coat them with plastics b) buy the expensive coated weights from plantguild.com.