question about substrate

On the 30 vert I am working on, I'm going to have one side dry, the other side wet, with a waterfall spilling into the wet side. I am thinking about putting down some drainage in case the splash of the waterfall spills over and I am thinking about using fish gravel, put down a mesh, then finally a layering of Eco-earth. I was hoping to use this instead of Terra-Lite, but do not know what the benefit of Terra-Lite is??? There's not going to be any plants on the bottom, maybe one, but all my plants will be in the background in the pots I provided. Here's the link on Terra-Lite. Thanks.
http://www.blackjungle.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=TL-20&Category_Code=SUB&Store_Code=BJTS

Terra-Lite is more absorbent is all. It is porous unlike the gravel you will use. I personally would like to try the clay balls some day to see the difference but currently use gravel of some sort in all my tanks. I use screen over the top of that and then the coco fiber. In the future I am also going to try a layer of moss underneath the coco fiber to help retain the humidity.

To answer your question, you are just fine doing the gravel, mesh and then the fiber.

I used the clay balls because they promote good bacteria that helps breakdown of the bad bacteria.
2 1/2 inches clay balls, cover with mesh/weedfilter fabric works well, cocofiber. It's working great!

Where did you get your clay balls from?

I have tried ace hardware, lowes and home depot.

I got my last bag at a reptile show, just having a hard time to locate it locally, someone recommended walmart, so i checked online at walmart.com I also tried searches for hydroton clay balls.

I have only ever seen them at petco/petsmart but they are higher priced than those at a hardware/garden center store from what others have said.

I got mine at Petco but you can go to ZooMed online and look up Hydro balls. It's way cheaper online but I was in a hurry

I use lava rock. Works pretty well i my experience.