Neither one is "better" though I personally would lean to the submersible pump for lower cost and ease of install/maintenance.
It's really all about the sump/Refugium.
Will it be inside or outside of the stand?
How large of a sump/Refugium?
Is the stand door large or small? Can you make it larger?
What material will the sump/Refugium be made of? Again, cost efficiency makes a plastic tub with submersible pump an easy choice, but if seeing all the cool stuff in the Refugium is important to you, a glass or acrylic tank is ideal. Keep head room in mind when choosing a sump tank. Pictured below is one of my old Refugiums made of a 40 gal glass breeder tank serving a standard 120 gal display.
Also realize that proper water flow inside the 180 gal reef cannot be effectively provided by any one "return pump. It took a while for the hobby to recognize but it's more efficient and can be more effective to use a reasonably sized return pump to move water through the sump/Skimmer/RDP Refugium filtration process, placing powerheads inside the tank to move the water around.
In my opinion, 500 gph(at 4-5' of head) running through a 20-50 gal Refugium is plenty of flow. Inside the tank, two good stream powerheads delivering 2-4000 gph from the lower back corners pointing diagonally up to roil the surface water allows all kinds of organisms to thrive.
The submersible return pump is a simple Rio 2500. Closed Loop circulation is provided by a Little Giant 1200 gph external pump hanging on springs to reduce vibration noise. (this was years before the development of efficient stream powerheads)
Edited by Mark Peterson - November 21 2010 at 8:50am
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I was always opening the doors and showing off the Mangroves to hobbyists. Nobody else appreciated it much. 
