# Blocking off areas where you don't want plants to grow (substrate)



## Canadianbettas (Oct 18, 2009)

Is there any good easy ways I can do this? Like putting some solid material in the substrate tahts safe so runners won't spread across the area where I don't want growth?


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## ThaChingster (Feb 25, 2011)

There are people that put stainless steel mesh inside the substrate to prevent runners
you can also use rocks


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

flat river stones work well, every once in a while the plant might grow over it but that's easily seen and can be trimmed off, that is how I divide my hc cuba, dhg, glosso, riccia, blyxa, and various stems plants in my shrimp tank.


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## Lee_D (Jun 11, 2010)

I use shower tiles. I get them at home depot in the tile department. They have tiles that are about three inches long and a couple of inches wide. Shaped like a dominoe. For $16 bucks you can get the one where several are held together with a plastic backing and then you take the backing off. Lots of colours to choose from.

Lee


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## DaFishMan (Dec 19, 2006)

I paid a few bucks for a roll of the black landscape divider. Trimmed to desired sizes and portioned off a few areas of the tank. Anything that spreads by runners (vals in my case) will still need to pinch off escapees that jump over the wall and could still be an occasional underground runner. I've been collecting reddish brown river rocks to cover up the dividers still have to get them in to make things look better. No divider is 100% effective but controls for longer periods of time cutting down on maintenance.


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

well that didn't work, DHG 1 - River Stones 0


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