The thing is with out quantative testing it's all just that, anecdotal. The whole picture will never be clear simply because there can be many many factors at play. Changing just one thing, say adding driftwood will change the flow patterns which in turn will change how much co2 is reaching the plants which will change the health. Even how much water evaporates will affect things.
ADA's good but it's not the be all and end all when there's many many factors at play.
There are factors at play with every set up that will never be apparent.
George, do you know rough PPM's for the ADA ferts? I know that when my last set up started I dosed very lean and found that growth was fast but "peaked out" after about a month at this point I noticed co2 use went through the roof as did fert use, no more light was added the only difference I could think was a change of intake, from standard PM 13mm to Cal aquas nano intake.