The most common way to tie plastic plants down is to epoxy them to a weight of some kind, a river rock is usually easy to do and doesn't look artificial, but you can use a piece of tile assuming it has not come into contact with pesticides and other contaminants... keep in mind that ceramic tiles are porus and can absorb elements from their surroundings.
Another more "covert" tactic is to get the base of the plant coated with epoxy and dip it in a cup with some dried out gravel from the tank. This will be enough weight to keep it down and hard to detect as it's identical to the gravel.
Lead strips are fine for short-term use with real plants but not something I would use long term with fake plants. Contrary to popular belief, the PH in our aquariums is no where near what it would need to be to actually dissolve any of the lead into the water, but such conditions can occur in the deepest parts of the substrate, specially a deep substrate as one would have with live plants. So while they are generally safe to use, you don't want to loose too many of them in the substrate where the PH can drop to very acidic levels...
You can also use silicone in place of epoxy, as long as it's Type I (Aquarium safe) which has no added chemicals to avoid mold and mildew. But epoxy will last a lot longer and can't be picked off as easily as silicon can. It will also set a lot faster and can be immersed in the tank as soon as it's hardened. Silicon needs to cure for at least 24 hours prior to use. Superglue gell is another great glue to use in an aquarium, as with epoxy sticks, both can be used directly underwater inside the aquarium without any problem at all.
Hope that helps
Giancarlo Podio
--- In tropicalfishclub@yahoogroups.com, Brandi C <brandiable@...> wrote:
>
> Hi--
>
> We have several African cichlid tanks that for substrate have ColorQuartz in
> them which is slightly bigger than grains of sand. As with most cichlids,
> ours are professionals at rearranging their substrate to suit their needs
> and build new caves and hiding spots. I enjoy watching what they can do
> (other than when all the sand gets moved to the front of the tank)... But,
> what is making me crazy is the swirl of plants that I end up with floating
> nearly daily. Because our bigger tanks are 125 gallons, it means that I
> have to climb up on a step stool and do everything but get in to swim to
> reposition their plants again.
>
> I was wondering what I could do to weight the plants down? I know it won't
> be possible to keep them in place, but, I think if I can find something to
> keep them at least with their base at the bottom it would save me a lot of
> time with the work I do on the tanks... One thought I had was using
> aquarium safe silicone and placing them onto small 2 x 2 ceramic tiles in
> color that would match the substrate, would there be any issues with this?
>
> Any ideas would be appreciated!
>
> Thanks!!!!
> --
> -Brandi
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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