Should I lower the Substrate line?

For this jar I’m going with a base substrate of fluval stratum topped off with snail substrate (I do plan on introducing a couple snails). I’m trying to go with the 1/4 substrate, 1/2 water, 1/4 air space rule for this jar but the stratum just looks like it’s really high in the jar plus it swells a bit when wet. The aquatic plants don’t need all that stratum to be healthy but I’m not sure if I should take some out before introducing the water?