I want to understand peoples thinking on why to strip the water bare and add things back in our own ratios...rather than letting the reef tank system balance to what it needs ??
Its a good discussion, and I enjoy knowledge.
My answer to this question is that I strip the water so that I do not have a build up of contaminants when I add my top off water to my tank. Even the most insignificant amount of a contaminant would build very quickly.
If you do water changes often, only plan on growing easy corals like xenia, GSP, kenya trees, or similar, you might be fine. If you want to get into any more difficult corals, I highly recommend an RODI unit.