[KodiakBear]

The goal is to turn my tank into a reef/fish system. As for the bioballs... I understand that they produce Nitrates, but they do that by first converting ammonia to Nitrite, then Nitrate. I have a little more than 1lb LR per Gallon, and a 3 inch sand bed for the anaerobic denitrification. Before I had the Bioballs I was having spikes in the ammonia levels, now there's hardly ever any ammonia (although the nitrates do stay around 7ppm).
There's another discussion in the general reef aquarium forum titled: "Bio Balls, is this really why???" that's been debating on the value of bioballs in a reef tank. I'll be keeping an eye on that for more about the bioballs.
As for the the fluval, I do not usually keep floss in it, though there is right now as I'm currently fighting an algae bloom and want as much mechanical filtration as possible until the brown starts going away.
All things considered, I think I'm going to scrap the sump and start on a new design. I'll let ya'll critique it once I've got it started. Thanks for all your inputs. You have given me a lot of good ideas to start the new design.