I have an aquarium with Java fern, hornwort and micro-sword, and some other dark-looking furry thing that just keeps sending out green shoots. And sticking out of the top I have a long bamboo stem. It's a new tank, cycled for a week. The plants seem to be doing fine. I don't have much algae growing, except on the imitation rock feature. My question is this - how do I clean out the gravel at the bottom of the tank? Do I remove all the plants and re-plant them?

My tropical tank is heavily planted as well and I usually just vaccum around and very near them, they don't seem to be harmed. Another solution is to put the plants in litte terra cotta pots which makes things *much* easier, that's what I have done in my goldie tank since I removed the gravel.

I used to have my plants setting right in the gravel, but that soon became a pain in the butt. I've since put all my plants in votive glasses and small vases I bought at Pier 1. It makes for much easier gravel vacuuming.

Here, take a look...

Click to view attachment

All the plants are in pots. I'm not the most experienced planted tank keeper, someone might come along with a better suggestion.

my 60gal goldie tank is heavily planted you have a couple of options

1. You can remove all the plants and gravel vac the bottom
2. You can gravel vac around the plants any gunk under the plants will slowly be decomposed by the plants.

In my tank i remove all the plants and put them in a bucket with some water. The root system on my plants is so established a block of gravel comes out with it.

Great idea about putting the plants in little pots. My whole house is filled with plants in pots, so the aquarium would be like a tiny version of my houseplant collection, underwater, for the wee fishes. Would it work to use regular china, something that would be used for human food? I can picture a little espresso cup, with something growing out of it. It seems that a hole in the bottom is not necessary for drainage . Mean time I'll see how I do "vacuuming" around them...
Thanks for the info!

A little espresso cup would be precious!

china is generally treated with a glaze to to stop it leaching into the actual drink some of the chemicals which are used are safe for humans are not safe for goldies. You can try glass cups as glass is inert there is nothing to leech or and ordinary terracotta pot is good just not the ones that are coated in paint etc.