Unscheduled Rescape

[BelldandyShanny]

So, while I was hunting down and catching my yoyos (who have turned out to be too much of a bully gang) I had to tear town my tank just to be able to get them.  I'm happy with the result however and I have more plants due to arrive within the week.
 
My question is though when people have very densely planted tanks, ground cover and everything... how do you do substrate cleaning? Seems like everything would very much be in the way of getting down into the muck.

 

[techen]

I never cleaned the substrate if I have a lot of plants. Normally it breaks down and then the plants use it as food. Just if you do it that way, avoid kicking up the substrate because it can cause a massive ammonia spike and pretty much kill everything which I learned sadly. But that's what I do, sure there's other ways but I hate uprooting plants all the time

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I have two vacuums, one is a very long tube and fits in all the small places, I don't do too close to the roots of plants though.

 

[BelldandyShanny]

I have sand substrate, so I don't think sticking the vac down into it is a good idea.  I know they say now and then you need to stir the sand to release all the trapped yuckies, but if I had zillions of plants would I need to worry about that?