Fishing sinkers for weights?

I've read lots on here about wayward decorations and members' methods of weighing things down, and I wondered if sinkers would be ok? I only thought of it because my floating moss ball thing is attached to what appears to be a simple lead ball, essentially a fishing sinker. I bought a great piece of driftwood today and will spend the weekend boiling it and all that, and I can just go raid the tackle box now before I spend the next 2 weeks pulling my hair out with the anticipated floating problems!
Any thoughts on sinkers?

 

Good morning,

I had floating moss balls attached with an anchor that you have described above and there were no ill effects from it. Some may say led could cause issues in the long run but my view is, if they weren't safe for aquarium use, they wouldn't be so popular and they wouldn't be sold.

Another option below:


I use the above plant anchors to weigh my Romaine lettuce and raw zucchinI at feeding time.

Another option, add more substrate.

Ken

 

Good morning,

I had floating moss balls attached with an anchor that you have described above and there were no ill effects from it. Some may say led could cause issues in the long run but my view is, if they weren't safe for aquarium use, they wouldn't be so popular and they wouldn't be sold.

Another option below:


I use the above plant anchors to weigh my Romaine lettuce and raw zucchinI at feeding time.

Another option, add more substrate.

Ken

G'day Ken! Thanks for your reply. I was thinking the same thing - that if lead was bad for tanks someone would have made a widely known fuss about it and they'd not be included with certain plants and such. As no such belief is widely accepted, then I'm going to hope the masses are correct and it is actually safe.

The link to the product you posted is good evidence of this. Sinkers for fishing lines are just a soft lead too, and a darn sight cheaper (generally) than specialist aquarium products. I think I'll get out the sinkers and give them a good boiling/bleaching too and take a risk. Or if I get a bout of cold feet I might put them in an empty tank and monitor parameters for a week or two. I don't imagine the lead ties on plants or the balls on my floaty plant are especially different to stuff for fishing. Thanks Ken!

 

Glad to help.

I used plant anchors on all of my fake plants for many years until they started producing the new heavy bottoms that you see on fake plants now days. I never had any problems.

You may get various opinions on this.

Ken

 

There are actually many threads about this topic, here's one of the latest ones that you might find helpful:

 

Thanks lynda! It seems there is no clear answer on this. More reading needed, I think.

 

Have you thought about using a suction cup and securing your fake plants to that, and then just "sucking" it to the bottom? I'm not a fan of those tiney suction cups that you find in LFS because the don't seem to "suck" that good. The larger ones, for like hanging stained glass items on windows seem to work better for me. It's so hard to find a good "sucker" these days, lol.

 

No!! Most fishing sinkers are made with lead...even still today as far as I know.

 

Lead is also what plant anchors are made of though Ted. It seems there is some lead content in plant ties that come from most petshops, too. It seems very conflicting!