Substrate / Plant Roots

Hi all,

Looking for some thoughts about an idea I had to help my plants root securely into the substrate.
I have a sand substrate and have read about using nylon mesh etc to help the roots take hold, however I was wondering if anyone has ever used pond filter sponge?
You can buy it in very larger sheets with various mesh size and it's approx. 1" in depth.
I would put a layer on the bottom of the tank and then place the sand on top which would then fill the sponge.
I would keep on adding until I had increased the depth so that the fish would still have a layer that they could burry into.
This would create a complete 3D framework acrosee the bottom of the aquarium into which the roots could grow.
The only downside I can think of would be if I wanted to clean the substrate but my belief is that sand only needs a surface clean anyway, happy to be contradicted on this point

Mark.

You may be able to hold plants down with pebbles and string but I've never tried that.

Mesh, net like material, in general is a bad idea in an aquarium, eventually some gets exposed and fish could be caught in it. I would recommend rocks, or even the weight strips before I would put any mesh material in the aquarium. The closest to mesh I would use is the filter bag sized material (50 to 100 mesh) but those openings are too small, anything with a larger opening might cause issues later on, and once the plant grows into it you really cannot get rid of it easily.

Thanks for replies.
I'd never thought about the fish getting trapped in nets but once pointed out it's fairly obvious this could happen.
I've uploaded a couple of photos of the type of foam I would be using to see if anyone can think of any negatives....




Mark.

That foam would not cause any issues with the fish but not entirely clear on how you would use it.

Your sand substrate should be perfectly fine. Sometimes it's tricky getting new plants to stay rooted at first. If it's a plant like a Swordplant or Cryptocoryne with lots of spreading roots you could sprinkle a little aquarium gravel around the base of the plant. If it's a bunch plant like Water Sprite that hasn't rooted yet you could pinch the stem between a couple small rocks and then take them away in a month or so.