# Lavarock under substrate and plant rooting?



## Tiger15 (Jan 7, 2018)

What do you mean by larva rock underneath substrate. I use larva rock and lace rock to create height, but I don't bury them in substrate. The fine grain substrate will fall through them. You can use the rock to form terrace and place substrate behind them. I do it differently. I grow mostly epiphytes attached directly on the rock, and placed potted plants behind rock to hide the pots.


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## Grobbins48 (Oct 16, 2017)

RollaPrime said:


> So I've never attempted to use lava rock to increase height before but through research I stumbled across this technique. I plan to plant this raise area, heavily and was wondering if there are any drawbacks or limitations to using lava rock underneath the substrate?
> 
> Please advise.


I also document this in my journal (we were talking there about substrate supports). I am using the lavarock under the black diamon blasting sand to help build height without it all being sand. It works well. I tried to keep 2 inches or so substrate on top of the rocks to make planting easier.


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## RollaPrime (Jul 27, 2018)

Tiger15 said:


> What do you mean by larva rock underneath substrate. I use larva rock and lace rock to create height, but I don't bury them in substrate. The fine grain substrate will fall through them. You can use the rock to form terrace and place substrate behind them. I do it differently. I grow mostly epiphytes attached directly on the rock, and placed potted plants behind rock to hide the pots.


The fine grain will definitely fall through the rock. The rock is to maintain the height over time.




Grobbins48 said:


> I also document this in my journal (we were talking there about substrate supports). I am using the lavarock under the black diamon blasting sand to help build height without it all being sand. It works well. I tried to keep 2 inches or so substrate on top of the rocks to make planting easier.


Hi again Grobbins. I didn't want to hijack your thread any further so figured I'd make an independent thread to gets some more opinions on the matter. I first came across this methid while research scapes and saw this video 

01:41 - 04:15





And was wondering about the rooting of plants. I have an uneasy feeling that I'm going to mess things up and not provide enough space for my stem plants to root properly.


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## Grobbins48 (Oct 16, 2017)

RollaPrime said:


> The fine grain will definitely fall through the rock. The rock is to maintain the height over time.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Greenmachine is where most if my ideas on hardscape came from as well. Personal I wouldn't be worried about the roots at all. If you move things frequently they likely won't take to the lavarock. If the do take then you have some secure plants. If you want to move them it's fine to break some roots!
Good idea to post for more input though! Always good to have many voices of experience.


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## RollaPrime (Jul 27, 2018)

Grobbins48 said:


> Greenmachine is where most if my ideas on hardscape came from as well. Personal I wouldn't be worried about the roots at all. If you move things frequently they likely won't take to the lavarock. If the do take then you have some secure plants. If you want to move them it's fine to break some roots!
> Good idea to post for more input though! Always good to have many voices of experience.


Which is why when I saw the substrate supports I thought I recognized them but couldn't quite place it :wink2:

I do appreciate the help here. It's a confidence boost of sorts knowing I'm on the right track or at the very least, parallel to it.


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## Grobbins48 (Oct 16, 2017)

Haha yup! I had watched those videos for years dreaming of setting a planted tank up! 

And this forum is a great place to turn for advice and support! Best of luck, and be sure to share your restuls. Curious to see what your scape becomes!


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## Colin Wrexham (Mar 24, 2017)

Another simple way to gain height is to fill mesh bags or womens stockings with gravel then stack them up. It helps to disperse the weight too. 

Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk


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## Tiger15 (Jan 7, 2018)

There are many ways you can gain height with bulky fillers, but I don't like creating dead space that can otherwise utilize to house fish or invertebrates. This is why I prefer to just pile up rock to gain height and create caves for cave dwelling fish. In Post #2 pic, I have a colony of Kribensis happily raising fry in the caves. You can find many cave dwelling fish and shrimp that will make home in the caves.


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## Nigel95 (Mar 5, 2017)

I always use small lava chunks and top off with aqua soil (layer aqua soil depending on which plants will be on the spot). Much cheaper. And lava rocks are permanent and reusable. To keep them seperate which is easier when rescaping can use a filtermedia bag. But not always handy when placing hardscape (the filtermedia bags). I just do lava rocks on bottom and aqua soil on top. When rescaping I collect them in bucket and will seperate them once I have time.


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## Raith (Jun 27, 2014)

I have used cut-up water bottles to layer up, and it has been successful thus far.


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

I have lava rock in mesh bags under BDBS. It's been there for about 6 months with no issues.


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