still confused about how to set up a wet dry or sump?

[spacenyc]

as title says still confused about the two. when i started with sw as a newbie a lfs suckered me into bio balls( you can tell which one from my location) and a whole lot of other stuff i found out was old school. Then i thought the wet dry with lots of live rock and live rock rubble, with the water dripping over the rocks was the way to go. Lately i m reading no live rock rubble and submerge some live rock with lots of biological filtering. so what is it and what is the difference btween each way with fowlr and corals. 20 years ago my friend had a great lfs in flushing with flo lights and undergravel filters and everything seemed fine. Thanks in advance to everyone who answers

 

[2004turbo]

Well overall everyone agrees that bioballs are a nitrate factory. Thats why no one recommends them. If you were to rinse them out frequently so that detrius doesn't accumulate then it would be fine. The same thing applies to LR rubble. The thing is that both of these trap stuff that breaks down into nitrate/ ammonia.

People are using LR in their sumps as a place for beneficial creatures to populate away from the hungry fish. If you go this way the rock should be submerged fully.

 

[125reefer]

i keep LR in a compartment that the drain pipe is in.im really not that worried about nitrate because a brittle star stays in that compartment and eats whatever falls in haha

 

[spacenyc]

live rock rubble in the sump?

should i use it or not