Biowheel/bioballs in sump

[pyro]

Well; after reading some posts I'm debating taking out my 2 biowheels in my Emperor 400. I am thinking about taking one out; waiting a month or two, and then taking the other one out. That way i wouldn't hammer anything too hard. I have about 60lbs of live rock to cover.
Next question... I have bioballs in my sump. They really don't serve any practical biological purpose (or aren't supposed to at least); they are there to break up the flow comming outta the overflow before the macro algae area so it doesn't kick the sand up. They are only in the first 1.5" or so of the tank from bottom to top. Any way i can make sure these don't turn into a nitrate factory?
I run an AquaC Remora on my 30g reef for reference. I don't have nitrate problems (at least readable), but wondering if this could help fuel some of the algae battles I've been having recently. Thanks.

 

[dbgator1]

I've heard from everyone that the bio wheels and bio balls fight with the live rock cause the live rock is trying to do the job of those things. On my 55 i did remove my bio wheels on my emperor 400 with no negative effects and my nitrate did drop. I've had my 150 up about 8 or 9 months and just recently removed my bioballs from my wet dry filter. Also most tanks i have seen have no bio balls.

 

[am3gross]

i know somebody who uses bio balls in his system and he flushes out half his balls every week. thats a little to much work for me... i would just take out the bio balls and replace with some live rock rubble. jmo.... goodluck

 

[pyro]

Thanks for the opinions.
Any tips on removing the bioballs in an emperor 400 w/o causing loud splashing noises?

 

[bojik]

if you need the bioballs for current spreading try replacing it with big hole plastic canvis from the craft store/walmart (aka hell mart). might do the trick.