DIY aquarium plastic plants

[jj_da_fisher]

I needed some plants for a new setup until I seen how expensive the nice ones (10 bucks each) where so I started thinking about how to make them just as nice but for cheap....... So while in the mall I went to a dollar store and low and behold they have plastic vines/plants in several different varieties so I picked one that I liked bought a few bunches and took them home cut them into pieces that would fit the aquarium height and hot glued them to the bottom of plastic pop bottles (cut of course) then you can put the substrate in them to hold the plants down. total cost 2 bucks

[darkdep]

Pics?

Only concern here is what the plants are made of...any worry about things leeching from them into the tank?

[hamstercaster]

I know two people here that use Walmart plastic plants, the ones you find with decoration stuff and all.  Rechaud is one of them and he's been using them for about 2 years without any problems and quite frankly, they sitll look very good and actually seem to pass the test of time better than the "Aquarium" plastic plants that you buy for 2 to 10 times the price.  Those Walmart and Dollar store plants will usually cost you 99 cents a piece and they seem to hold up quite good and he hasn't had any issues in his tanks with anything leeching from the plants.... and they are often much nicer looking too!!

[Brine]

I also used some Wal-mart plastic plants. In all cases I rinsed them well before use. In one instance the rinse water seemed to contain some substance like soap. The water foamed up. I did not use that bunch. I used the other bunches of fake plants for a few months with no discernible trouble.
My only caution is that nearly all the products Wal-mart sells (from shoes to bicycles) are from China and as we all know from the latest news reports "Quality Control" are two words that some Chinese firms don't understand.

[jj_da_fisher]

been using this for a while now (2 years with the same plants) with no problems and my fish seem to be very happy and healthy

[dan2x38]

As DarkDep suggested leaching of substances into the water. It may take a while to build up to toxic level. As mentioned about foreign products have different standards i.e. types of plastics-PVC, paint-Lead, dyes, etc. Also the amount of plants used? Good idea of gluing to the pop bottoms but that plastic does not glue well & what might be in the glue. Maybe a small hole with fish line tied around the steam poked through the pop bottle bottom.

[matt]

Before I switched to live plants, I was using plastic plants from Micheal's craft store. They have a great selection and usually have sales on them. Never seemed to have a problem when I was using them.