This is a great subject, I know back in the late 80's and 90's we did water changes to get those nutrient numbers down but its funny how that has always been the same to now modern day and yet we have all these new products to remover the 2 big ones that was the reason behind water changes Nitrate and Phosphate. When I was first into the Reef Tanks the 6500K MH bulb was just coming out and selling for like $200.00 and the Coralife 5500K was the big light at the time and was supplemented with the Philips Actinic tubes was almost the only source for blue or the 420nm spectrum. Instant Ocean and Coralife was the Salts to use and yes even then the debate should we use the Coralife because it had more Cal and Mg. in it.
So here we are now and I wonder do we need to change water as often as we did back then, with all the modern and vary efficient equipment and all the water treatment products we have at our finger tips. An old saying comes to mind " IF ITS NOT BROKE DON'T FIX IT " If your Nitrates are all in check and your Phosphates are in check would we not be better to leave well enough alone until something brings the need for one. It almost seems that doing weekly or monthly changes could have a bigger potential of throwing things out of whack then if it was left alone.
Just one of those things that makes me go hmmmmmmmm.
Skim
Yes and no.
Yes leaving a system alone when it's running well gives it better stability. There's still the debate that doing larger water changes will cause a fluctuation which disrupts the stability.
So in that sense yes.
But we all know in this hobby that things can go south quickly. I've seen systems that normally run at less that 10ppm NO3 go as high as 20-30ppm just because something small was missed. Like skimmer was dirty and stopped pulling gunk, forgot to change filter sock or floss.
We all perform regular water changes to help prevent that from happening.
I agree with the KISS method of doing everything. But somethings need to be done to ensure the health of the inhabitants in our care. There's a reason why millions of hobbyists still perform regular weekly or bi-weekly water changes.
Don't get me wrong. There are ways like the Triton method that eliminate water changes. But until that fancy pc comes up to Canada and allows us to analyze our water to that degree of detail. The simplest way to maintain a healthy reef is to perform water changes.
Sony Xperia Z3
