I saw these at petco the other day...and my giant anubias is too heavy for my gravel (red sea's flora base) -__- so I thought about using plant weights to help out but I realized that this might pose a small problem...I know that these weights are some form of steel, I assume stainless steel...but would the steel somehow degrade the water through releasing metals or something of that sort since shrimp are apparently more reactive to metals?
I'm not sure what you bought. I use a product called "Plant Sinkers" by Blue Ribbon. they are non toxic. I love java fern attached to my bogwood but it's awful to take it out of the tank to attach a new specimen so I put a weight on them and drop them in the bogwood hole I want them to grow in. Sometimes I just lay the weight over them so I can easily remove it once the plant attaches on it's own.
Works pretty well so far. Most LFS have them but they usually aren't on the shelf for some reason, ask! The big petstores don't carry them (like Petsmart) Before I found these I'd ask my LFS if I could scavenge plant weights from their tanks and they didn't mind.