Large water changes input

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by waynemah

But I don't want to be responsible for crashing someones tank with inexperienced recommendations.

fair enough

Think of it like this..if you bought a fish or coral, and the water was pretty close to your tank, would you acclimate or just add to the tank? Personally, if I get a fish from a friend's tank and we're anywhere near close to temp (that's all I'd look at), I dump the fish in my tank. That effectively is a 100% water change for that fish. I've never lost one to new water. Same with corals. I float a bit to equalize temp, then in it goes. Completely different water than it came from = 100% water change.
The bacteria you want to filter your tank resides on the substrate. The amount free floating will have no impact, so that's not an issue.

I suppose one caveat might be that if your tank is so filthy and the fish have become accustomed to living in sewage, too much of a good thing might kill it. I doubt this is the case