I think when you have a properly established tank with live plants and a drainage layer, cleaning is unnecessary, but maybe if you're using fake plants and have no drainage, you should change the substrate? This is mostly a question for Tony, as I am a little curious about this too.

I was told I never had to clean my tank once I set up a drainage layer with live plants in it and everything but before hand I thought cleaning the tank once a month was required to keep my residents happy and healthy.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. O: