Yeah, you have to watch out what you read. There is always someone out there claiming that they get excellent results from weird methods. First thing to keep in mind is that some people define "excellent results" differently than others...
Some people will show you a stunning tank that has no algae and huge coral and say it's their pride and joy but what you don't know is that they just stocked it and everything could be gone in a month.
There is a guy who runs an LFS (not the one I worked at) who says that the way to dose kalkwasser is to dump it in til it forms a snow, that's how you know you are done-then do it again every day like that; that you can cut your marine salt with road salt if you are broke; that you dose copper every day until you don't see any more disease and then your fish are cured or dead-even if it's chelated copper which accumulates; that you should always have meds and/or potassium permangenate in freshwater tanks as a preventive measure; that a bucket of vodka is the best way to euthenize a fish humanely... Also some people will tell you something weird assuming you will know it's a joke and not at all intending you to actually do because it defies common sense... or they could be plain perverse and mean-this type is more likely to be found contributing anonymously via the internet than face to face and local.
That said, you can get the very difficult cardinal tetra to spawn with a cup of black coffee dumped into the tank. Noone knows why. A friend who had the most picture perfect stunning plant tanks I have seen either in real life or in print (beat Takashi Amano even) He drained his tanks 50% every week and refilled with the garden hose with ice cold tap water and no chlorine neutralizer. Fish spawned, one of his plants was purple, it was stunning for years. Then he started doing it right and they fell apart. He had the best water clarity... but that was freshwater.
I have read a lot of rationales for doing extreme things, most of which center around reducing phosphate and nitrate and increasing clarity. Water changes will also do this and are a whole lot more predictable/safer plus will replenish trace elements and remove hostile inverts' chemicals. Live rock helps with nitrate, refugiums with the right kinds of macros, kalk works great if used properly and is dirt cheap... Personally I couldn't stand to lose the livestock I have based on someone else's lucky ability to bend the rules for a time. Neither emotionally nor financially, it's just not worth it. I don't do anything weird other than overfeed and over stock and have zero phosphate and 10 ppm nitrate in my main reef which to me is fine.
If you want to experiment get a 10 gallon nano and a couple damsels and put some frags like kenya tree, Monti digitata, mushrooms, and majanos. See what happens with very well thought out and documented experiments. If after a long period it consistently works then try adding a tougher species. Keep the main tank traditional til the experiment is done. I would want to know with any high risk process that it is well understood, manageable, and that I will not slack and burn my tank in the process... I like to use methods that leave a margin for error because some days I am just not the most reliable person, like if my back goes out or I get a migraine.
Good luck! Experiments are fun, I just don't like to do them on my most valued specimens
Kate
