Sherry Michael Weller wrote:

I'm curious, do you have fish in there? What's the load like?

Umm...high. 8 adult angels, 70 fish total. 30% weekly water changes and a tank
full of plants seem to take care of that, although the Angels have paired up
and are making things uncomfortable for each other. I need to get rid of 4.
Can't keep Nitrates at 10ppm without adding 3/4 tsp KNO3 per week.

Funny, I kind of have the opposite view you have. Since having a wet
dry, I've decreased the amount of mechanical filtering and increased the
fish load. I only use a pad to catch the large stuff my filter sucks in.
I do frequently change water, but I hardly ever clean the gravel.

An established tank is a very forgiving thing!