But does not eliminate the need for dosing Ca/Alk, or nutrient removal.
do you feel that chaeto + AWC would be enough for nutrient removal?
and if i did a 2% water change every day. that would replenish 2% of the cal/alk/mag. would that be enough to keep the tank stable or would dosing still be required?
It all depends on how stocked your tank is and your salt mix.
My bet : Nutrients will be fine, but you will still need to dose Alk + Ca.
2% per day is a lot though, so might work.
There are all sorts of great graphs on that here:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/
Here's a great article on all things water-changey. Last I heard, Randy Holmes-Farley was doing automated 1% daily water changes.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php
He spread them out through the day. I don't think that detail is in the article, but the Google hits on his ReefCentral threads do.sweet ill give it a read.
1% spread out all day or 1% daily at once?
Yeah, but 10-15 gallons would be a pretty big wc for you. It would be about 10% for me, and only 2.5% for some of the other tanks on here.I gave up on it, doing manual water changes still works well for me.