swapping sump with refugium

[johnyquest]

I have a 40 gallon sump with bio balls. I am replacing it with a sump/refuge with bio balls for my FOWLR. I have 150 lbs. of live rock in my 125. The new sump only holds about half of the bio balls as the current sump. My question is should I remove bio balls now until I get to the capacity of the new sump, or can I make the switch and reduce the bio balls by half? Thanks for your respones.

 

[jdecter]

Truth be told toss the bio balls go down to your LFS or hell buy some from TFO they are having a blow out sale on rock, but anyways buy some live rock rubble. What I mean is not the giant pretty chunks but the small tiny ones or just break up big ones. Put it where the Bio Balls were and your filtration just went from...disaster waiting to happen (bio balls) to the best possible filtration with no maintenance needed.
This is what the old schoolers do, it is super stable builds up no nitrates and is the best possible wet/dry bio filter possible.
Before I end I'm sure someone will come touting in that eventually people might want to cook the rubble but give the guy the next 10 years before you worry him about all that.