Lead in water

[hussarman]

Is it safe to use lead weights to anchor down live plants. If used, might this cause toxicity in the water.

 

[Davy Reynolds]

Yes it's safe. If you want take them off and bury the roots in the substrate, after time they will establish themselves in the substrate and won't move, that is if they don't die like all of mine :what:

 

[pete]

I'm afraid i disagree with you there m8  

Sorry to go against you m8 lol

Years ago ppl used to use lead weights but i feel it falls into the same principle as lead pipes i houses.......why has everyone replaced them?.......LEAD POISONING!!!!!!!

Yes admitidly it takes a long time but its a fact!!

Now the good news    you can now get lead substitute weights from all good lfs's  

 

[adeyc]

Hmmm. Not sure with that one. Lead's still being supplied on plants from lfs's and you can still but the stuff for your own plants. Most metals are not safe to put into a tank.
As lead reacts slower in the water than most and your doing water changes regularly It Shouldn't be a problem as your relacing any contaminents in the water with fresh un-contaminated stuff.
I shall investigate further.

 

[Davy Reynolds]

Okay you guys, I answer a question in a simple manner and you guys get all complicated

I wrote it all on the assumption that he was getting the weights from a lfs, which most of the weights are now fine for tanks, plus after working with several exporters of plants which all use 'lead' style weights which are safe for tanks. Yes I know that not all are good for tanks. But in a tank, burried in the gravel where there is little distrubtion they will cause little if any damage. Plus after the roots have established all wieghts should be removed anyway.
Since hussarman is just a beginner a simple yes if fine for now

 

[Dennis]

Hussarman, I wouldn't recdommend using lead to keep the plants down. I know there are many points-of-view on that and we can argue forever, but still you should know that lead is poisonous and that's a fact. It's really upto you, but I prefer to plant my plants without any weights or anchors, they perfectly stay in place just in gravel. You might have some problems for the first couple of days if you have active bottom fish(cats etc. )until the roots develop, but I decided that it was still better rather than slowly poisoning my fish. You might want to use a few medium sized stones placed next to the plant to keep it down, it worked for me

Just a thought: They used asbestos in construction for many years until they realized it caused cancer