# make my own plants?



## bigvince (Apr 13, 2012)

i want to make my own plants out of silk flowers or just plastic plants and wanted to no if there to toxic for my tank i am talking plants from arts and craft stores like micheals , benfranklins etc.. even wally world


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## Inga (Jun 8, 2010)

bigvince said:


> i want to make my own plants out of silk flowers or just plastic plants and wanted to no if there to toxic for my tank i am talking plants from arts and craft stores like micheals , benfranklins etc.. even wally world


 
I cannot say for sure that this woulldn't work but one thing I would be concerned about is that MOST plastic plants have a small wire in the stem so that you can bend them a bit to make them look more natural. The metal wire could potentially be an issue in the tank. The other thing is that, you likely wouldn't find plants that are "aquatic" in nature. If you are going for realistic, you might be better off finding plants made for aquariums. All that said, I did have some silk flowers in my tank for a month in the beginning and had no issue that I could see. It didn't look so great but I was very new to aquariums and didn't even know how fake it looked. ha ha

People with much more skill then I have with silk flowers could likely do a great job making the tank look awesome. STill, I would be concerned about dyes and wires in the plants. They are not made for use in water. I wouldn't want to risk the fish in toxic dyes or metals leaching into the water.

Have you considered live plants? They are easy to deal with and quite reasonably priced. The nice thing with live is that they reproduce (some quicker then others) and you can grow out more to replant eleswhere in the tank. Not to mention the huge benefit to the fish with live plants. The plants really help to improve water quality.


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## bigvince (Apr 13, 2012)

i will probably end up trying live plants but as soon as i tell people i have jack dempseys they spend the next 10min discuriging me from buying them


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## Inga (Jun 8, 2010)

Maybe some planted in small pots? Just a thought. Maybe some other Cichlid people will chime in with suggestions.


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