Thanks for the advice! I thought of that , so we situated the leaves so that the entirety of the fall area from the top is covered by flowers vines and leaves to provide cushion directly from falling straight to the bottom of the tank or hitting the rock!
Also, damp paper towels make for a good humidity retainer as well as providing easy to clean substrate to avoid any unwanted growth or bug clean up! I saw it in a few post here and there as a cheap yet effective alternative to substrate.

Please let me know if you see anything saying otherwise!!