Aquarium Plant in Terra Cotta Pot?

[tr...@io.com]

Is there any reason not to pot an aquatic plant in a red clay pot?
For example, will the pot dissolve or soften? Or do they sometimes
contain lead or other harmful metals. It appears that red clay pots
are coming from China these days (at least the ones from Lowes are)
and the media has me more or less convinced that everything from China
contains lead. ;-)

Sure I can go find plastic pots. But these are just right and rather
attractive, so if they're usable...

Jeff Walther

[videoman]

Bottom posted.

I can only tell you my own experience with red clay pots is excellent.
They never dissolve or soften (from being in water) And as far as the
lead thing goes I will say that it is extremely common for people to
use lead strips to anchor plants in full fledged freshwater fish
aquariums so even if a red clay pot in the water leeched or let out
some lead it shouldn't make any difference. My guess about people
eating fish and getting lead poisoning is that the lead is stored in
the fish and people eat the fish with the lead BUT the lead doesn't
effect the fish itself in any way. I don't have a set of other facts
about this so I am interested in ANY discussion about this so I can
correct or educate myself about it. Right now my speculation is the
only rational explanation to me right now as far as I can tell. Good
luck all and later!

[Andy Gratton]

One of the largest Aquatic plant providers from  Denmark only supply plants in very small clay/terracotta pots stuffed with rockwool as a planting medium, and use a disk of terracotta  as the plant weight,

Most guides to planting  always seem to encourage the removal of plant weights made from lead, mostly  these are found on plants sold in bunches or groups of stems,( sadly they seem less available ) 

2008/8/29 tr...@io.com <tr...@io.com>

[NetMax]

My limited understanding is that these lead plant weights are actually
a mixture of metals like zinc. Perhaps pure lead would be too
expensive.

I think the clay pots are very useful. I never had one soften or
cause me any issues I'm aware of. I think the caution about lead was
with the pots which were painted because the paint could have lead.

As for impurities in the clay used to make the pots .. that's anyone's
guess. Many impurities would degrade the cast though, so I'm sure
they look for good mineral sources to improve their yields.

NetMax

On Aug 29, 5:01 am, "Andy Gratton" <anglerfis...@googlemail.com>
wrote:

> One of the largest Aquatic plant providers from  Denmark only supply plants
> in very small clay/terracotta pots stuffed with rockwool as a planting
> medium, and use a disk of terracotta  as the plant weight,
> Most guides to planting  always seem to encourage the removal of plant
> weights made from lead, mostly  these are found on plants sold in bunches or
> groups of stems,( sadly they seem less available )
>

> 2008/8/29 t...@io.com <t...@io.com>

>
>
>
>
>
> > Is there any reason not to pot an aquatic plant in a red clay pot?
> > For example, will the pot dissolve or soften?  Or do they sometimes
> > contain lead or other harmful metals.   It appears that red clay pots
> > are coming from China these days (at least the ones from Lowes are)
> > and the media has me more or less convinced that everything from China
> > contains lead.   ;-)
>
> > Sure I can go find plastic pots.  But these are just right and rather
> > attractive, so if they're usable...
>

> > Jeff Walther- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[tr...@io.com]

Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate the reassurance.

I will be a little delayed putting these to use. They were/are
destined for the lower 30 gallon, which is a bare/sponge filter tank
with the new light I rebuilt recently. Unfortunately, I awoke this
morning to my six-year-old piping from the foot of the bed, "Daddy,
all the water is leaking out of the aquarium and the fish are in
trouble." The upper 30 gallon sprung a leak last night, so my
attentions will be redirected to tear down, diassembly and resealing
the tank.

These two 30 gallons spent several years in my parents' attic. I
already rebuilt the lower tank when the bottom slid out of it after a
water change. I knew I was going to need to redo the upper tank, but
I hoped it would wait until I had a couple of attic-rescued twenties
rebuilt first, so I'd have more space for the fish. Now they're all
crowded into the lower 30 gallon.

I found one adult guppy on the floor and was trying to figure out how
she squeezed through a leaking seal and out of the tank. I didn't
waste any time on it, wet my hand and scooped her into the lower
tank. She seemed fine; she was laying in a puddle.

It turns out the leakage from the upper tank was partly dripping into
the lower tank and had caused it to overflow. So the renegade guppy
was certainly from the lower tank, not the upper tank.

Jeff Walther

[Donna Camp]

Jeff - I hope you didn't have too many other plans for the day! sounds like you're going to be busy! Good luck!

 

Donna

[Andy Gratton]

I actually use  large terracotta flowerpots cut in half  for my Convicts to use as hiding places/breeding spots, but they so far have not bred or even looked like they were interested in breeding,  but I know my Pardalis has claimed one half of a pot as his  daytime snoozing place and takes a dim  view of the Convicts trying  to muscle in on his spot.

2008/8/29 Andy Gratton <angler...@googlemail.com>

[NetMax]

Reminds me when I strategically placed 3 pots in a 120g with 3 pairs
of Kribs, the experiment was to see if the area around the pots was
enough territory to support 3 simultaneous spawns, and the pots were
oriented so that I could peek through the plants to look inside at the
fry. They dug under the pots and spawned on the underside!

I hope Jeff is doing alright with his repairs.

NetMax

On Aug 30, 9:18 am, "Andy Gratton" <anglerfis...@googlemail.com>
wrote:

> I actually use  large terracotta flowerpots cut in half  for my Convicts to
> use as hiding places/breeding spots, but they so far have not bred or even
> looked like they were interested in breeding,  but I know my Pardalis has
> claimed one half of a pot as his  daytime snoozing place and takes a dim
> view of the Convicts trying  to muscle in on his spot.
>

> 2008/8/29 Andy Gratton <anglerfis...@googlemail.com>

>
>
>
> >  One of the largest Aquatic plant providers from  Denmark only supply
> > plants in very small clay/terracotta pots stuffed with rockwool as a
> > planting medium, and use a disk of terracotta  as the plant weight,
> > Most guides to planting  always seem to encourage the removal of plant
> > weights made from lead, mostly  these are found on plants sold in bunches or
> > groups of stems,( sadly they seem less available )
>

> > 2008/8/29 t...@io.com <t...@io.com>

>
> >> Is there any reason not to pot an aquatic plant in a red clay pot?
> >> For example, will the pot dissolve or soften?  Or do they sometimes
> >> contain lead or other harmful metals.   It appears that red clay pots
> >> are coming from China these days (at least the ones from Lowes are)
> >> and the media has me more or less convinced that everything from China
> >> contains lead.   ;-)
>
> >> Sure I can go find plastic pots.  But these are just right and rather
> >> attractive, so if they're usable...
>