What's The Story With Lead?

ellena · Jun 28, 2009

Lead, surely it's harmful? We use water conditioners to remove heavy metals. Some must leach into the water? And yet loads of plants are still supplied with it on.
So does it do fish any harm?

saltynay · Jun 28, 2009

The lead is sealed in a flexible oxide layer if used and I would suspect it is not true lead and is an alloy or other element which does not hydrolse or hydrate in water and the name has stuck like lead pencils are graphite now.

yabadaba · Jun 28, 2009

Yes, that's something I was concerned about too. I use those lead plant weights to weigh down small pieces of cucumber and pumpkin that some of my fish like to nibble on.

Just came across this after a quick google....

http

/theaquariumwiki.com/Lead

ellena · Jun 28, 2009

I see, thanks for the replies

afishdude · Jun 28, 2009

If you don't want to risk the lead, get tungsten weights.

Schmill · Jun 30, 2009

So it's completely safe for the fish, unless like me you make the mistake of giving those lead weights a good scrub before using them to weight down the food... just to make sure they were clean. Yeah, thats right, I got those dirty looking grey strips out the cupboard, scrubbed them until they were nice and shiny, and was then content that they were clean enough to use a food weights

Thankfully no bad effects, but after i first read about the weights i soon stopped scrubbing them! - lol

Bobtastic · Jun 30, 2009

I thought you were supposed to remove those "lead" ties that come wrapped around the plants... Is that not the case?

OldMan47 · Jun 30, 2009

People used them for years without worrying about it until the latest public sensitivity the potential for lead poisoning came along. I can't say that they are not going to leach lead into the tank but it is more a concern today than the same weight would have been 20 years ago, before we became this sensitive to lead's potential. I never cared for the weights myself so I do try to find another way to keep my plants from floating around and I minimize the amount of handling that I do of that lead.

saltynay · Jun 30, 2009

Lol at scrubbing the weights, the oxide layer would form pretty rapidly so scrubbing them wouldn't really matter although there would be a small release.

You can remove the lead ties if you wish, if kept on they may strangle the plant at that point preventing it from growing effectively and also the high concentration of plants in a small area can cause problems.

lordofthesea · Jun 30, 2009

I've had them in my tank for years. the plant have grown roots around them and now i can't get them off. have not had a single case of lead poisoning and the tanks been set up for around 5 years now :good: