Plant "anchors"

[Naomi Mizumoto <naomizu at pacbell_net>]

Normally, I try to use tweezers and a lot of patience to plant plants in my 
tanks, but some have left me spewing cuss words and chucking plant 
fragments onto the floor, while my two little kids were in the room, the 
older looking a bit concerned. I discovered stainless steel washers and 
nuts of various sizes (very cheap at hardware stores) and they work like a 
charm. I even bought some Cardamine lyrata, stuck about three stems into a 
SS nut with a *very* small inner diameter, and never had any problems 
(well, except with the plant itself, which I decided I didn't like very much).

The LFS I buy my plants from (and sometimes give plants to) doesn't use Pb 
(lead) weights - from what I've seen, they're very good about that. If they 
have to, they just let plants float around. But if I were to deal with a 
store that requested it, I would try this stainless steel alternative and 
express my concerns with Pb to the manager. For me, I'd be paranoid about 
bringing Pb into my home, especially with one toddler that insists on 
"tasting" anything she can get her little hands on. She's been known to 
garbage-pick, too. I'm sure I'm not the only mom in this hobby that feels 
at least some degree of concern about small, bite-sized pieces of Pb around 
kids ("Oohhh... Bendy! I wonder if I can bite through it, too...?"). And 
imagine having it ionize in an acidic tank and a pregnant, or breastfeeding 
woman is constantly exposing her child (and herself) unknowingly just by 
having her hands in the contaminated water every other day... It may not 
seem like much, but I believe Pb has a cumulative effect, so even low 
exposures can build over time.

I know - I'm paranoid and neurotic, but where my kids are concerned, better 
safe than sorry. I'd like to think that any self-respecting business would 
at least take into consideration such concerns that a customer might bring 
up... But then again, I'm naive, too ;-)...

-Naomi