for ten years I had a nano. I too rarely did water changes. Mostly top off with freshwater.
I grew a lot of cyano and xenya at one point. Other times I focused on massive amounts of hair algae and a leather coral.
For the last few years that grossly neglected tank was home to a pair of clowns that survived the neglect although they stayed pretty small on their occasional flake food diet.
Then that tank crashed after my little boy increased the flake food diet by 34000% by dumping the whole can in.
I got a bigger tank and started taking the whole thing more serious.
Hadn't really updated my fish library in a decade... wow much had happened in the last 10 years!
I increased my fish library by 2500% and started enjoying the hobby more.
I vowed to redeem myself by giving the clowns a worthy retirement and better care.
In the big tank on yummy frozen food they rapidly grew even though they already were several years old at that time.
I briefly thought about rehoming them when my focus shifted to a Caribbean theme but gave myself permission to cheat and make good on my promise to provide a stable home for them until they pass away.
I really enjoy water tests now, TDS meters, weekly water changes (Thanks Alton for the ideas), a clean-ish tank, well fed critters and all the reading and researching that goes with it.