29g sump/fuge or sealife 125 wet/dry?

Unless you want a minimalist aqua scape and have very little live rock in your tank, there simply is no point in having rubble in a sump. It is such a small amount it is not contributing much for filtration. In such a high flow area the water is very oxygenated and probably very little nitrate reduction is going on. Anything in water will reduce flow. A pile of rubble will reduce flow through it and ditritus will settle. Throwing it over a sand bed is even worse because it chokes off the bed. Perhaps only if you put it on a rack off the bed.

There is simply no real advantage to doing it. I realize lots of people like to throw it in their sump. It seems to make some feel it is filtering more I guess. But I would like to hear an appreciable benefit for doing it. Live rock should be in the tank providing a reef and habitat. Just my opinion. YMMV.

 

Yes, the rubble is supported by egg crate so everything gets full flow.

 

Basically the deisgn I borrowed.
55 Gallon In Sump Refugium

 

I thought about getting a piece of LR and breaking it with a hammer and putting in a few small pieces in my fuge--you would advise against this? I'm not thinking about the filtration aspect, but more along of the lines of getting some different creatures in the fuge to eat detrius.

 

It's just that LR is not going to do thast for you. What will inhabit the sand bed is really just worms. They burrow in and "till" the sand bed. That is really what you want for a sand bed.

Just like earth... worms turn over and areate the siol. So their tunnels provide circulation into the bed.

Rock is just a rock sitting on the bed and taking up realestate and choking off that spot of the bed.

Pods are tiny andf don't really care. Ampis burrow in the sand, and the tiny ones live in the cheato or GHA if it's growing. I din't have any rock and I had plenty of micro fauna in my fuge working hard.

 

Can you explain what the benefits are to your system?

It isn't like there are not a thousand ways to skin a cat in this hobby.... but I try to maximize the effectiveness of every part of my "system". Everything has a purpose and everything has it's place. LR certainly has it's place... but where is it going to be most effective?