and then there's zeovit; who's running that and has seen a noticable difference? I know, kinda off topic, and zeovit REQUIRES a skimmer, but I'm curious, since we're already on a debatable subject.

Carbon dosing (sugar etc) and aggressive skimming:mrgreen: are most often used on sps tanks to achieve the low nutrient levels required by these corals. It is the basis for Zeovit, Prodibio etc. Water changes are to balance the elements in your water that may get depleted with time. Doing water changes to reduce nitrates is expensive, time consuming, and a loosing battle IMO. Better to buy a bigger skimmer!

word

To play the devils advocate

Again, some of the discussion is based on peoples personal preferences and not with the livestock selection in the tank. There should really be the caveat "if you keep this, you should do this" in order to be accurate.

Will one be successful with SPS species if one strips the water column of nutrients?

Will one be successful with filter feeders like feather dusters, clams, certain softies, sponges etc... if one strips the water column of nutrients?

Dosing and stripping is fine for a smaller aquarium but what if you have a 200 - 300 gallon system?
I say this from my own experience in creating a coldwater set up. I naturally built a very efficient skimmer (keep er clean) and then began stocking native species, primarily filter feeding flora and fauna... Oops! This (ought to have been obvious) revelation caused me to take a step back and rethink the whole filtration regime.
I'm not saying I have all the answers - just that I know there are a couple o more questions I need to answer first.

Ok, the devils had enough of my time already :mrgreen:

I only have a 35ish gallon. I stated this in the very first post. I could care less about a 200 gallon aquarium.:redface:

My comments were for general forum discussion sake and not directed to your situation specifically - though most of those points do pertain to all aquarium sizes to some degree.
I guess the biggest problem I see with your particular situation is the idea of keeping anything that catches your eye in the tank. Most of my thoughts on this subject are based on the premise that different species need different approaches to filtration.
Either that makes sense or it doesn't.
Specifically, I've heard the best reviews for the remoras of all the HOB skimmers that might service that size of tank.