AquaOne Aqua One Plant Weight - 10 pk

Does what it is supposed to do. Suppose that I am satisfied.

I know it's like six bucks, and I should have known, but these are going back. What in the actual HECK? Keep out of reach of children, but hey, fish aren't that delicate! I needed something to weigh down plants in an axolotl tank instead of tying them with cotton string to rocks. These animal absorb EVERYTHING through their skin. Lead? Uh... no thanks.

I have been getting more serious about keeping a freshwater aquarium lately and part of that has been gradually adding live plants in place of fake plants. Supposedly better for the aquarium they say. However, I quickly found that plants tend to have a positive buoyancy and unless you weigh them down with something they float around the tank getting in the way of everything.Hence the weights, which are apparently a necessary evil. They do what they say. Flexible metal strips that you wind around the base of the plant before you stick it where ever meets your fancy in the tank. Does exactly as advertised.One caution, is that fish tank weights are apparently generally made of lead. These are no exception. Minor handling of them is probably not going to do you any harm and as far as I can tell my fish don't really seem to care either. However, if you have small children around, you probably want to keep them out of reach. They are small and could be easily swallowed.

The product was clearly opened (not ripped, but cut open with a knife/scissors), all the lead weights had fallen out of the package. 20% were missing. I hoped I could just get a few more, but Amazon would only allow me to return them all for a complete replacement.That would have completely ruined my work on my aquarium, waiting for days for the turnaround, sending an unnecessary package and wasting the overtaxed shipping workers' time (during a pandemic) and wasting fuel resources during a climate crisis. I remember, years ago, when you could just email Amazon and get actual help from a person. And I was never shipped something obviously damaged! I don't blame the worker, I blame the company that puts them in a stressful position where they have to send poor quality products or risk their jobs.The weights themselves are perfect. They do contain lead, they work as advertised, and they're large enough to cut in half for small groups of stem plants (or single stems). I'm not going to plant my Pogostemon Stellatus 'Octopus' in the substrate anymore, and my life is going to be 1000x easier. Thanks to the seller.

These have made my life so much easier with my aquarium. It really helps to set down my plans that have rhizomes and can't be put into the substrate. Of course you could always use super glue gel to put them on your Driftwood or rocks but I have trouble making up my mind and like to move them around.