Rocks And Wood 'on' Or 'in' Substrate?...

[bogwood]

Should any rocks/wood to be placed in a new set up be placed before (in) the substrate or after (on) the substrate. Placing 'in' means my rocks/wood will partially be touching the bottom glass, 'on' means old food/stale air and dirt may get trapped underneath? (My substrate is 1 inch laterite and gravel mix, followed by 1 inch gravel only... with an inch of sand over the lot. Thanks

 

[jimbooo]

it depends on the size and weight of the wood/rock.

in my cube tank (journal and pics in sig) i put the wood in first to make it more stable and then put the gravel in after kind of burying the bottom portion.

for little bits of wood just chuck them in on top of the gravel. you may get anerobic build up under wood/rock "on" the gravel. to avoid this just lift the wood/rock at water change and have a prod with your finger in it's place to move the gravel about and refresh the water under there.

 

[zig]

Yeah it really depends on the size of the pieces in question for very large pieces some people will use "eggcrate" to distribute the weight more evenly, eggcrate is an American term and i dont know the european equivelant, if you imagine the plastic serated fittings you see in office blocks that cover the ceiling lights this is eggcrate, im sure its widely available and apperantly its very effective just conceal it with gravel.