Chris I am sure one could ease up on feeding. But I don't want to. lol
In fact I think we barely mimic what's available in the ocean and I'd love to be able to add some Swiftia gorgonians and keep my filter feeders alive and even growing. I might even add an automatic refrigerated food line to my set up.
Part of my reasoning was that the bacteria might feed the gorgonians, etc. but I did see no evidence of that. In fact the bacteria might have eaten more of my expensive FM food than the gorgos! lol
They all seem to do much better now without the bacteria bloom.
And I just started investigating other options for reducing N&P and am finding that there are very good alternatives for that available.
So why limit myself in what I can do and what kind of critters I can keep in my tank just to stick with the pellets, kwim?
I always like to continue to learn and try different things and optimize my tanks for the benefits of the specific critters I keep.