These guys are doable in a reef if you are able to keep up with the maintenance on them. Same is said for any equipment we run. There is a general bad wrap for bioballs because people 'set it and forget it'. Toss that in with having a tank with a pound of rock per gallon, much of the use that the balls do is already being done.
In terms of the water 'skim', point a powerhead up and it'll go away. I have this 'sheen' on the one side of my tank too. It's ugly, but can't get the flow right to make it go away on that side for whatever reason.
In terms of getting rid of the 'splashing' sound, the use of filter socks can solve that. On my tank, I use cheap panty hose as a great solution. In this case, with all that room I would do panty hose and then a filter sock. Would catch a TON of debree. It is something I've been considering doing as the panty hose catches a good amount of stuff, but not everything.
