Rubble Rock vs Regular Size Rocks

[Noob]

which is more beneficial for my system?
is it more beneficial to add 5 pounds of rubble or a 5 pound rock?

[Zack]

That's an excellent question.. Looking forward to seeing the answers

[quicksilverz]

I would assume it depends on what rock your putting in. I guess u can say what weighs more 5 pounds of feathers or 5 pounds or rocks. I think they would be about the same but all and assumption.

[Dkray944]

Rubble for a sump is better because you have more surface area. However I prefer bigger rocks for aquascaping

[DTdr2]

Here's a pretty good write up that I hope helps settle the debate.

http://www.cermedia.com/MarinePureTechSheet.pdf

[Noob]

I was also thinking rubble rocks because there is more surface area

[Zack]

Yeah I've thought about this a lot, a lot a lot lol..

So the answer would be rubble rock (I think)

http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/328576/328576,1233380871,2/stock-photo-small-red-cubes-coming-together-to-build-a-bigger-whole-concept-for-team-spirit-and-achievement-24148138.jpg

If you simplify this, and make a large cube made of live rock, you will have a surface area equal to: 2lw + 2lh + 2wh.

Lets say it's a 10x10x10cm cube, this would be: 2(10*10)+2(10*10) = 2(10*10) 2(100)+2(100)+2(100) = 200+200+200=600cm^3

However, if the cube is broken up, you gain several additional surfaces that can know be exposed to bacteria, lets say they are 1cm cubes. If you break up a 10x10x10 cube, you will have 1,000 small squares

2(1*1)+ 2(1*1) +2(1*1)= 2(1) + 2(1) + 2(1) = 2+2+2 = 6 *1,000= 6,000cm^3

I think that would be the correct way to work that out, but it is so much bigger because very surface area is now exposed, as opposed to just the large faces of the large rectangle. Now, live rock is porus, but I don't think it's porus enough to make up for the difference in total surface area.

With that being said, all that may be irrelevant. Many people will not buy a set pound of rubble rock, say like if you were building an aquarium. They usually buy enough to fill a location that they need. Lets say you had a 12x12x12 area to fill, and you had a large piece of rock, you may end up with something like this:

http://****strophies.com/images/p500x500/basketball-display-case-32qtP8.png

Where as with rubble you'd most likely be able to fill most of those gaps.

Idk if that math is correct (not super good at math) but it sounds right, so in my opinion, rubble is far superior for surface area, although live rock is nicer to look at.

[jcnkt_ellis]

That's just surface area on the outside, live rock is porous so there is additional surface area in all the pours. What I've read leans more towards rock then rubble, because rubble traps detritus faster then the pours of live rock. On a side note, there have been arguments going around that non porous rock is better then porous rock because of the eventual detritus build up in the poles.

just read the part of your post that addresses pours so ignore my first sentence...

[Zack]

Yeah I'm not 100% sure it's accurate but it makes sense in my head lol

[leliataylor]

Rubble rock will tend to collect detritus unless it is kept in a high flow area that will continually wash it. This is why I use rubble rock in my baffles and larger rock and macro in the fuge section.

[jroescher]

leliataylor, can you post a picture of your sump showing the rubble and baffles? I'd like to see what's that's about. That could solve a different problem that I'm having.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T807A using Tapatalk

[Noob]

How often are we suppose to vacuum out the detritus (im assuming thats what the dusty powder stuff that collects in the sump)?
What causes it?
My sump builds up quite a bit.

[leliataylor]

Here is a picture of a 47 gallon sump I was in the process of setting up. I make the baffles wide enough so I can get my hand in them to add, remove or clean the rubble rock. This filter was designed to filter a 60 gallon grow out tank and two nurseries. Ignore the bioballs in the background. The wet/dry filters have since been removed. The tanks are now plumbed into this filter, more rubble rock has been added, along with a K1 media reactor and a filter sock. Since these are barebottom tanks they require a large sump with a lot of biomedia to maintain water quality.

As far how often to to clean the sump, it varies by what I have in each tank (normally I clean the sump once a week). I use 100 micron filter socks which helps reduce the detritus entering the sump. The filter sock needs to be changed ever few days.