Is my sump setup okay?

[c_wags9]

I've been getting back into my tank and bought new lights to grow some lps and am going to eventually get rid of my old fish and get new ones. I wanted to make sure my sump and skimmer were up par for the most part. I need to rinse my return and my skimmer in some vi gear to get the calcium deposits out to hopefully make them run better. And I've noticed a lot of people don't like the bio balls in their sump. Is there any better way I could set this sump up and maybe incorporate a sock? Also my return hose is quite noisy.. Could it be too long or should I make it pvc instead? Thank you

[c_wags9]

And it's a sealife systems sump (I wanna say it's 10 or 15 gallons) and a corallife skimmer. They both came with the tank when I bought it.

[BfishLpond78]

I would ditch the bioballs and just rubble rock. The balls will trap in lots of detritus. If you are refering to the large black hose being noisy, I would either shorten it so it doesnt have any any loops or curves. You can also change it to PVC to make it less noisy.

[Jeff210]

Originally Posted by BfishLpond78

I would ditch the bioballs and just rubble rock.

Agreed - get some Live Rock rubble and put that in there instead (it will need to be cycled first). You shouldn't need a filter sock as you should have the filter pad over the top of your return chamber. Shortening the drain hose should help with the noise but you're probably always going to have some noise...

[c_wags9]

Okay thank you! Yeah I wanted to replace to the bio balls. I just didn't know what to put in place of them. Rubble rock would be the same as live rock just small pieces?