I find Luke's methods very interesting. It is working well for him right now, and his practices will probably evolve over time. I think his are quite credible, but there is no "magic bullet" here, yet !
I'm working on it, I'll let you know when I have it all figured out.
There has to be at least 5 or 6 very different yet successful methods for operating a reef tank, and none of them is specificly the best.
Differences in animal types, bio-load, feeding practices, maintanence frequency, etc. are going to make a large difference in what kind of system works best for a particular aquarist, most especially including the aquarist himself. He is a large part of the system !
All systems that work even fairly well, along with detailed, honest and accurate information regarding their operation and results
( that's for you Krish
), give us an improvement in our overall education, and ability to respond to problems when they arise and then help us do a good job of setting up "the next tank".
For my tank, I do almost nothing. I have some crabs and snails, 2 starfish, a cucumber and a couple of starfish. I have a 6" layered DSB, 27 gal. hex. + 16 gal. fuge. I feed rather sparingly once a day. One day flakes, alternate days, frozen stuff. I top off the water everyday, about 3/4 gallon.
I never do anything with the sand, no algae, no cyano, no detritus, no maintanence. I clean the glass every two weeks.
The result is lps, softies, and whatever else are quite happy in the tank. I cannot keep SPS due to poor light and .3ppm Phosphate. I don't change water. My P is 1.0mm and Alk. 4.5 meq/L from the tap. I will install RO/DI soon, and go to a 20% per month water change at that point.
I like the idea of Luke's close fitting glass, but I'm curious about the oxygen content. I think PualB's RUGF system is going to make a comeback in reef keeping, I'm working on it. It should reduce maintanence a lot.
Float your boat ! > Barry
