Bioball confusion

[IndigoSea]

I have a compartment in my sump that my husband filled with bioballs. It's been that way for about 6 months now, and my nitrates have always been up and down, ranging between 0 and 20. I'm in the process of building a refugium which I'm planning to fill with Chaetomorpha, and I just want some thoughts on my bioballs and what I should do with them.
I have a 75 gallon, 3-4" sand bed, LR, and will have a 10 gallon refugium.
Any input as to what I should do? Could they be what's making my nitrates unstable? If I remove them, should I remove them altogether or slowly? My husband loves them and is convinced they're golden, and I don't trust them!

[bertoni]

Sometimes, bio-balls seem linked to higher nitrate levels in tanks. I'd probably remove them slowly, if the tank has enough live rock for filtration. That said, if they're kept clean, they might not be harming anything. Hard to say.

[IndigoSea]

How often should they be cleaned?

[bertoni]

They should be rinsed in tank water from time to time just to keep the debris level down. I don't use them, so I can't help much more.

[IndigoSea]

Yeah, I think he keeps them pretty clean, they're free of debris and gunk anyway. I'm just not sure about wether we even need them with LR, a skimmer, and LS

[kidchill]

If you have adequate LR, get rid of the bioballs. The only thing the bioballs do is provide surface area for bacterial growth, this is the same thing that LR does. Remove them slowly. Take out a little each week until they are gone. This allows for the bacteria colonies to get larger on the LR.

[Spuds725]

When I removed mine, I pulled out a handful every other day-- took me about 2+ months to get them out-- the only thing you can do wrong is pull them out too fast and get an ammonia spike-- I've read of people pulling them out quicker, I wouldn't risk it.

[Billybeau1]

How much live rock do you have ? If you have a 75 gallon tank and have at least 75 lbs of live rock, then you should be ok.

100 lbs would be better.

If you don't have a pound per gallon of live rock, then I would not remove the bioballs yet.

[IndigoSea]

I haven't actually weighed my LR, but I have a load of it, wouldn't be surprised if there was more than 80lbs.

Thanks guys! :)

[Aquarist007]

I had bioballs in a trickle filter gradually removed them and replace them with a filter sock:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r107/reefescapetangster/IMG_4200.jpg

providing you have the live rock as suggested you don't need the bioballs