My plants keep floating out of the ground

I am talking about stemmed plants here. I spend 15 minutes trying to get one of them in the sand, turn around and they are floating again. I don’t like how my tank looks because it went from trying to make the plants look nice to just being happy they are in the sand. I am looking at my different options.
The most simple looks like lead plant weights, but like a lot of people I am a little uncomfortable playing around with lead. I mean I guess so long as I don’t chew on it I am ok but still it makes me nervous. The ceramic weights look to big for me needs although I have never seen them in person only online. I was thinking of taking some 1”-2” rocks and tying the plants somehow to them. Not sure with what though, I feel like thread would cut into the stems.
I just don’t know. I am super excited about all my plants and seeing if I can make them survive but I am starting to get frustrated.

 

Hi LillyPad5
Welcome to fishlore.

 

I use the lids from plastic bottles (milk, water, juice etc. not anything which has had chemicals in them). Wash them well, use a craft knife to cut a cross in them, push the stems through about an inch & then bury the tops in the substrate (upside down so that the substrate fills the lid. As long as your substrate is deep enough it works well.

 

Sometimes I weigh them down with a small stone placed gently over the stem so as not to break it. This gives them a chance to take root then you can remove the stone if you want.

 

There are flexible "rubber" anchors that you can buy. They are flat and about 1.5" in diameter. They have slits exactly like the DIYs that Seasoldier makes.

 

I've had decent luck with using curved forceps to insert the stems, and then drag the stem horizontal in the substrate before removing the forceps.

 

I have had fair luck with just cutting the bottom leaves in half so the stem has a small nub to hold it down.

 

I more or less got them in for now but I know the second I go to clean I am going to have plants floating all around again. I don’t really have any bottle cap lids, which seems to be one of the more popular answers.
How long will it take for the roots to establish enough that the plants want to stay in place?

 

When you bought the original plants you may have gotten some weight strips?
I cut those to inch length, wrap them loosely around stem and place them in the tank. When roots develop I can remove the wrap.

 

When you bought the original plants you may have gotten some weight strips?
I cut those to inch length, wrap them loosely around stem and place them in the tank. When roots develop I can remove the wrap.

They were in big bunches with foam, a rubber band, and a few of them at a rock. I thought I was supposed to separate them. I reused the small rocks for the Java fern