Homemade w/d question

[xxblwn408]

The other night i scored a homemade wd made of a 55g barrel for FREE. It came with a bunch of filter pads, bioballs, gravel, and the pvc connections.
The guy had it layered from bottom to top- Gravel, eggcrate, bioballs, and filter pads.
My question is should I leave the gravel in there? what is the purpose of it?

 

[jsodwi]

I don't think it would hurt it is probably just a bed of bacteria for your biological filtration.

 

[rallysman]

it probably is a spacer for the bioballs which will also store bacteria. I would leave it.

 

[Dr Joe]

how cool...

post a pic already

Dr Joe

.

 

[Full Metal Gundam]

maybe for anaroebic bacteria

 

[Dr Joe]

maybe for anaroebic bacteria

?

Dr Joe

.

 

[Full Metal Gundam]

just joking

 

[fote03]

That sounds great. Could you post some pictures? I was thinking about do something like that for my pond.

 

[MrFisher]

i would not use the gravel, even tho it good for anaroebic bacteria groth my reasoning for wanting to remove the gravel is in the long run it's just goning to fill up with junk and whould be a pain to replace or clean...you really don't need it anyway