How to make a
Plastic Plant Anchor Base
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On this web site we recommend keeping the gravel in aquariums and fish bowls at most 1/4" thick. Click here to read more
about Aquarium Gravel.
Most Plastic Aquarium Plants have an anchor base that is designed to be pushed down about 1" into the gravel to anchor the plastic plant in the gravel, and this will not work well in an
aquarium with only 1/4" of gravel, but Raul has a do-it-yourself project to fix this problem.
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The advertisement, shown below, links to
this advertiser's web site. |
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Customer Comments |
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Instruction for Making Shallow gravel Plastic Aquarium Plant Anchors
As mentioned by David D. aquarium Plans sold commercially are generally supplied with anchors designed for use in 1” to 2” gravel. These anchors are not very good
looking with ¼” inch gravel, and don’t hold the plant well.
For nearly invisible anchors on ¼” deep gravel I found that drinking water container bottoms works well, they are FDA approved, I would say ok for aquarium use.
This is what you need to do. |
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1. You need one bottle per plant, if your plant is big you need a 1.5 litter bottle, smaller plants need only a 16oz
bottles. Make sure the curve of the bottle bottom center is a small one, some bottles have a large one. |
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2. Now use a knife or scissors to cut the bottom of the bottle at around a ¼” high.
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3. You end up with something like this:
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4. Use a drill to make hole right at the center of the plastic, the drill size will depend on your plant stem size.
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5. Now you are ready to remove your factory made plant anchor, be careful not to damage the stem. You might need a toothpick
or similar to wedge against the holding teeth. |
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6. Insert the plant stem in the hole you made and make sure in fits snuggly. |
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7. And your set, just remove some gravel and put it over your new plastic anchor.
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Good luck,
Raul E.
Tijuana, Mexico |
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Reply. Hello Raul. Wow! What a great idea and a great email with pictures and instructions. I'm going to make a couple of these for my
aquarium. Thanks again, Raul.
Click here to read David D's instructions for another way to make anchor bases for plastic
plants.
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Customer Comments |
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Hello
fish guys! This is Raul from Tijuana. Here's one
more Idea for plant pots when you have only 1/4
inch gravel. Hope you like it.
Raul E.
Tijuana, Mexico
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Reply. Hello again, Raul. Thank you for your email. The
quality of your picture is very good! Also your aquarium looks
bright and clean. Your new idea looks like the bottom of a soda
container, like maybe a 12 oz. Pepsi cut about 2" from the
bottom. Right? So it is less visible than a terra cotta pot.
Click here to see a terra
cotta pot.
I hope I got this explanation correct. Thank you for your email
and picture. |
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Customer Comments |
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The
bottle I'm using is water bottle, one of those
pint size ones. I cut it about two inches from
the bottom. I like the bottles that have plastic
labels that only have a little adhesive. I've
made a baby fry isolation container made out of
a one litter bottle. I will send you pictures of
it later, I want to make a new one and document
the whole process.
Raul E.
Tijuana, Mexico
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Reply. Thanks Raul for your quick reply. Yes choosing a
bottle with the least amount of adhesive and then removing all
of the remaining adhesive is important, because the water bottle
is safe for human drinking, so the plastic in the bottle will be
safe in an aquarium. But we are suspicious of the adhesive on
the outside of the bottle.
We're looking forward to learning more about your baby fry
isolation container. Thanks again.
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