The bricks will be level with the substrate when I do it, no ramp bio raising since it could make him decide otherwise in using it. And its just a shallow plate like his food plate but larger (since just the other day read a post where the OP mentioned a ramp bowl and people were saying it could cause water flipping and drowning, and I didn't have the ramp bowl but it was like a 2 inch deep old Tupperware container and I was worried he'd flip in that and potentially drown since he really splashes around sometimes! )
Everyone has got to do what they think is best, but all of that doesn't sound ideal to me. Have you tried the terra cotta plant saucers sunk into the substrate? They only cost a couple of bucks and having it buried into the substrate usually discourages them from digging under it. I have 20 russians with sunken terra cotta saucers and none of them try to dig under them.
I won't bug you about it anymore... just throwing that out there.