Fluval Shrimp Stratum. Plants keep flooooooating away...

[Arcteryx]

Can I use the metal strips to weigh them down enough so they stay grounded? The stem plants keep floating away on me...

[Momobobo]

I find that when that happens to me (which is often because I cheap out on stuff ), the substrate just isnt deep enough.

[Arcteryx]

So I should've stuck another bag of substrate in there then... sigh. Thought the sack o' dirt that came with the tank would've been enough...

[gklaw]

I found new stem plants do not have enough root system to anchor them down even if your sand is deep. Wrap a strip of foam light around them and then use the metal strip will anchor them until they develop roots.

[Arcteryx]

Any harm from just clamping the metal around them? Cuz I did that on at least 3 or 4 of them...

[gklaw]

The foam allow room for it to grow and roots to grow through over time. You can always wait and see what happen

[Bfunk89]

I use small 1" chunks of porcelain piping, wrapping the stems with a thin strip of foam first then using them as anchors. I was super frustrated with the fluval substrate as well but this solved it! I'm not sure where you can buy it because I just got it from my friendly fish store when I was trading shrimp. Maybe a hardware store in the plumbing section? I really don't know, sorry =(

[Arcteryx]

Y'know what though, this is awesome info and thanks guys... I really had to go through this myself the hard way to find out what makes it feel so awesome when everything you poke into the substrate actually stays down (along with that fear of God whenever you walk around the corner expecting everything to be floating at the top again)

I'll take a pic tomorrow of my first ever setup, heh heh heh.