stems tie-up, weights

[eleontie]

Ghazanfar mentioned during this Febr meeting something about using weights to tie down stems and drop them to the substrate. That saves you the trouble of jamming the stems into the substrate, uprooting other plants, etc.
I have been using this technique for a while , but I can not pin down the ideal string/weight to do it with. I know the pet stores use lead strips, but I do not feel that comfortable using that much lead in the tanks ...

I use fish line weights (there are some non lead based) and floral wire - but this is far from ideal.

Any other suggestions ?

[jcali10]

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/212673/product.web
apparently lead is not that bad.

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

Don't know if soldering wire would work

[Aaron]

Ken's Fish has some plant sinkers.
http://www.kensfish.com/plantsupplies.html

[B Considine]

See if your LFS has some. I asked at a store once and they gave me a handful.

Blaise

[marydotson]

I"ve had good luck lightly holding plants in place with women's hair pins. I used to use the black ones (which are virtually invisible). However, I found eventually most will rust, so when I do use them, I use ones for grey hair (which contrast more). After two weeks, most roots should set, and then the pins are easy to remove.

[FrannyB]

Ken's Fish has some plant sinkers.
http://www.kensfish.com/plantsupplies.html

Those skinny things aren't as effective as those from lfs.

[Cristy Keister]

Having used loads of those lead plant weights at Scales (the standard and the kensfish type), I saw that they broke down pretty quickly. They got soft and broke apart. I don't know what that says about their safety.