I removed mine out of my 180's FOWLR wet-dry. I used to have high Nitrates all the time until I removed them. I filled the sump area with cheto and live rocks; I now have 0 Nitrates in my tank!
maybe i will do that i havb fish in my tank..so i dont want to hurt them....also since im here. water changes im confused as hell....some people said do them now and some say wait a little longer...some say to mix and sit over night and some say to just mix and put it in.
You can only remove the bioballs if you have LR. And even if you do, i would make sure that your tank is well cycled before you remove them. I ran mine for a while with LR and the bioballs before removing them. If you take out the bioballs and dont have cycled LR then your levels will skyrocket becuase you will not have a biological filter.
bio balls help oxiginate water for FOWLR set ups. they are not bad. you do not have to worry about nitrates as much in a fish only set up. i had nitrates up to 70 with no fish deaths. if you are to remove them in a FOWLR set up then make sure you remove them slowly like the chief said. its always better to be safe then sorry. also once removing them i suggest making water changes to help prevent any unwanted spikes
thanks
matt