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fishing sinkers in tank?


Angel74

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Hello everyone

I have needed to put some sinkers (used 4 fishing)attached to a little bit of line in my tank 2 weigh down my plant inside a wood branch till it gets established root system to hold it in place before my malawi's and gibby up root it .The question is do sinkers leech anything in the tank that might harm my troop????

thanks in advance 4 any info received

Angel74

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G'day

Unfortunately lead is pretty bad for our pets. I would never be using it.

PS. You can purchase lead free fishing sinkers but be warned it is very expensive.

What about using a rubberband connected to a pebble/rock.

cya Matthew

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Lead is poisonous, but it has to be ingested. In fresh water it is pretty well non-reactive, so fish won't eat it or be able to absorb it through their skin.

I could be completely wrong here, but interestingly I was thinking about it just this weekend, and wondered as to a correct answer.

I would like to see some more input to this posts question, particularly if there are any people out there that can give a definitive answer.

Craig

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Lead is poisonous, but it has to be ingested. In fresh water it is pretty well non-reactive, so fish won't eat it or be able to absorb it through their skin.

True, but as Angel said there is a gibby in the tank I'd be chucking them out just to be on the safe side.

However,

Commercially sold "plant anchors" for aquarium plants are made of lead but I think that they have a protective coating over them. Perhaps a silicone sealant spray or similar may make your sinkers safe enough to use.

-Mat-

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Lead is poisonous, but it has to be ingested.  In fresh water it is pretty well non-reactive, so fish won't eat it or be able to absorb it through their skin.

I could be completely wrong here, but interestingly I was thinking about it just this weekend, and wondered as to a correct answer.

I would like to see some more input to this posts question, particularly if there are any people out there that can give a definitive answer.

Craig

Most lead sinkers will have a coat of lead oxide which makes it less reactive than normal (which is not much in water) but in either case it is not very reactive at all, a freshly cut or molded sinker would be a worse choice due to the lack of oxidation. The potential issue is in acidic waters, especially with nitric acid which forms at the end of the nitrogen cycle. Even then the reaction is slow and the toxicity risk is probably not a big issue.

All that said, I have often wondered why shops use solder around plants and I always remove it and would not use a sinker in my tanks. I have seen tanks where solder has been left in the gravel for a long time and there is quite a bit of corrosion evident. This is probably more likely to be the tin in the solder mix though.

If in doubt leave it out.

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True, but as Angel said there is a gibby in the tank I'd be chucking them out just to be on the safe side.

A gibby has the mouth-hardware to tackle metal? Led is soft, but not as soft as a water logged piece of wood. I’d be surprised if any pleco type species can scape off lead. dntknw.gif

Good suggestion to coat in silicon, but I’m still not convinced that small amounts of led cannot safely be put into a fresh water tank.

Most lead sinkers will have a coat of lead oxide which makes it less reactive than normal (which is not much in water) but in either case it is not very reactive at all, a freshly cut or molded sinker would be a worse choice due to the lack of oxidation. The potential issue is in acidic waters, especially with nitric acid which forms at the end of the nitrogen cycle. Even then the reaction is slow and the toxicity risk is probably not a big issue.

Good comment, pretty much in line with what I understood. I personally also by choice would not have it in my tanks, but we need to understand the details for a choice.

I've always taken those led weights of plants if for no other reason than they can damage the plants.

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I've used barbless blunt hooks, small lead sinkers & fishing line to hold down zuchinni for my gibby - the tank in question has had the least troubles out of all of my tanks, but then it's only been in action for ~2 years & I stopped using the sinkers 6 months ago (the line snapped & I've been too lazy to replace it).

As already mentioned, the sinkers have a oxide layer on them which stops them from reacting - the hooks however are stuffed quite quickly & I'd be more worried about them leaching iron & other stuff into the water than the sinker itself leaching lead.

No scientific way to tell if there's been an issue with it, perhaps the fish will get fishy cancer from lead poisoning in a few years?

The fact that plants are bunched with solder surely means it doesn't kill fish quickly, almost every LFS does it, though our fish of choice (cichlids & plecs) live longer than the usual family tank neons, guppys & swordtails don't they?

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Would it be safe to safe to say here that lead is okay to use in your tank, don't go crazy with it, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to coat it with silicon take further take any risk out, but even if you don't coat it, small amounts pose no risk?

Craig

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I used a big lead snapper sinker to hold down a piece of driftwood. It was under the gravel and I never had any problems. My Blue Rams even had a spawn 10cm from the sinker about a week after coming into the tank.

Bruce

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Would it be safe to safe to say here that lead is okay to use in your tank, don't go crazy with it, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to coat it with silicon take further take any risk out, but even if you don't coat it, small amounts pose no risk?

Craig

That's sort of what I was getting at - I only ever used pea sized sinkers BTW. YMMV & all that, I think the silicon coating would be the go.

I used a big lead snapper sinker to hold down a piece of driftwood.  It was under the gravel and I never had any problems.  My Blue Rams even had a spawn 10cm from the sinker about a week after coming into the tank.

Bruce

If anything would drop dead from lead being in the tank, it should have been those blue rams! How big is that sinker?

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