Caligo'sKeeper

Hi,

I want to make a fairly large (like 5 inches across) ring to hold some floating duckweed type plants in my aquarium... so it has to float and be non-toxic to fish/not mess with the pH. I was thinking of using tubing, like you would use for an air hose but I read on another site that the plants sneak under it, so I was thinking something thicker like maybe an embroidery hoop (wooden, without the metal pin) would that be safe? I know driftwood lowers pH but if I boiled the hoop first would that work? If not any suggestions?

Thanks!

Gouramiguy17

I think that it would be safe unless the wood was treated with chemicals

gremlin

What about floral styrofoam. The kind they use as a base for wreaths? Or if you wanted to use the tubing, go with the larger 1-2 inch diameter and fill it about 1/4 to 1/3 with water so it sits a bit lower in the water so the plants can't sneak under it.

Nutter

A filter hose would do the trick I think. Fill it with a little water like gremlin said so that it sits lower in the water. I think the wood would just sink once it gets water logged. Perhaps it might not get water logged if you gave it several coats of an aquarium safe varnish but personally I don't like anything varnished in an aquarium. Mainly because I've had Bristlenoses die from eating the varnish as they scrape it for algae. That shouldn't be a problem to you seeing as the idea is for it to stay afloat but I think the tubing/filter hose as gremlin mentioned would be a much better idea.

iloveengl

I use plain, unscented craft Styrofoam. I found pre-made rings of various sizes at our craft store. works great!

I first tried the tubing idea...Once I siliconed the ends together, let it dry, and got it in the water, I discovered minuscule curves in the tube, so parts of the circle dipped under or over the water and didn't hold the duckweed in. The weight of the tubing itself will hold it slightly under the water, it's the curves that mess it up. So, from my experience with it, I wouldn't recommend it.

I actually wanted to use your idea with the embroidery ring, but found Styrofoam rings first. I think either one would be effective!

namehater

i dont know how well it would work, but i found out that PVC pipe floats in the aquarium. if you had a piece of pvc pipe (whatever diameter) you could cut it to about a 1" length, it would be kinda like a floating flower pot. it might be hard to keep it stable tho, i dunno. just brainstorming