Float or Sink: Plant Weights for Substrate Plants

Imagine planting all your stems and rosettes deep in your substrate, and then filling your tank with water. With all the excitement, you perhaps went and grabbed a drink to celebrate. You turn around for a minute, and as soon as you turn back, the plants you carefully planted are all now floating as if they are frogbits. You tell them, "Guys, you're supposed to be in the bottom," but the physics of buoyancy was just not in your favor. To prevent such an event from happening, we can take extra steps during planting.

Here's a simple way to make sure your plants—especially stem plants—stay where you plant them. 

Materials needed:

• Cotton Floss or a piece of cloth (Optional but recommended)—protects/cushions the plant from being damaged by the metal
• Aquarium-safe metal plant weights—sinks the plant
• Scissors—for cutting the materials

At DriftAqua, we often provide complimentary floss and weights to help our customers achieve the level of success they envision.

Steps:

1. Cut the cotton floss or piece of cloth into the desired size. Aim for 1 cm x 3 cm. 
2. Cut the metal plant weights into smaller pieces. Cutting them into smaller pieces will allow you to only use what you need and reserve the rest for future use.
3. Bunch 3-5 stems (or 1 rosette plant) and wrap around the base with the cotton floss. 
4. Wrap the plant weights around the cotton floss. Make sure that they are snugly fitting while making sure that the plants are not being crushed.
   
5. Bury the base of the plant completely under the substrate to hide the floss.