How do you gauge your tank success?

I got a 6 year old 46gal ive never done a water change on yeah its got a bit of hair algae and film on the back but my two fish were the first two I put in, a got a linkia starfish that loves it captivity and an sps coral on the sandbed under 2 PC bulbs. thats a sucess in my book. Ive gone over a year without feeding anything its had 6 weeks without light once, the only equipment i have on it is a skimmer, and it went 7 months without a skimmer lol. Something is going right I just dont know how. As for my 55g I want to nusence algae rare polyps flourishing, and crazy sps that I can frag every other week hahaha

 

Tank success is not all about algae growth because without algae what would my tangs and angels eat all day. That's the thing with me. I'm a retired disabled war veteran and I live alone. My tank is my life. My fish follow me all day long. I don't see a hint of ich. My nitrates are 0 and I feed my fish at least 3 times a day. I chose to have a bunch of tangs that eat constantly. I look at it this way if I had to swim all day non stop I would always be hungry too. Yeah it's a little more work changing floss and such but I have nothing else to do so in answering your question I have to say..
Waking up and seeing the fish come to see me.

 

Well put marlin man!

 

if i get home and everyone looks healthy, work is forgotten and i am a happy man.

 

tank success

well i started my tank in january 09 and i still have it running in april 10 i have gone through green brown and red alge ich bristle worms and aptasia all cleared free well beside slight brown alge film on the glass i scrubb down every other day and all i lost was the fish that gave me the ich
so i say besides successful i am perty lucky to of not lost any corals fish or inverts

 

My daily checklist when I get home from work if all is well then I am successful another day!
1.) All fish and motile inverts accounted for. 2.) Clams and Elegance look happy and healthy. 3.) Quick rundown of all the SPS 4.) Temp Check 5.) Fuge Check 6.) Equipment looks good
Wheww! Now I'm a happy camper
Oh and whenever I do tests and the numbers are spot on (not always the case) but the fact that since my cycle I have NEVER had a nitrate reading above 0 also tells me I'm on the right track

 

I figured I would ressurect this thread for some more input. I am interested in peoples responses here