Bryan's SPS. / sticks experiment

[skey44]

I don't think it's necessarily THAT hard to not do WC's and have a successful SPS system. Caveat though is that you are constantly adding trace/corrections that would normally be taken care of with water changes. If you aren't going to 100% commit to that, absolutely go with the bi-weekly or so water changes. Don't change too much though at any one time - that can be more detrimental than good.

Agreed on the large, oversized skimmer. That's a big portion as well as proper flow and lighting.

I agree it’s very possible, but coming from the perspective of not having success it’s just so easy to do water changes It corrects some baseline issues that are hard for a SPS beginner to fully account for. For starters it would likely help correct his chemistry imbalance if he was doing regular water changes, and this would be one less variable to chase.
I’m not suggesting it can’t be done. Just saying that regular water changes are a great way to eliminate variables if you aren’t having success.
I personally think every system benefits form consistent serial water changes even if the WC aren’t huge or done often. I don’t think we have anything as dialed in as we think we do
I’m not saying water changes are 100 percent necessary. They just make things easier and better