Yes, I should have noted that I do not clean the entire gravel bed. Because
of the terrace structure and various objects in some of my tanks there are
usually relatively small areas in which crud and debris settle and
accumulate, and those areas get cleaned.

BruceKGeist wrote in message
...
Consider NOT cleaning your gravel at all! I rarely "clean" gravel. I
have
done so when I had a cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) infestation that I
thought was due to too much left-over food in the substrate. (II used to
feed
bloodworms a lot, and they seemed to cause this type of algae/bacteria
outbreak
if I let too much fall in a single spot that did not get eaten.) Although
the
vaccuming helped in this case, I have found that with more careful
monitoring
of my nitrate levels, cyanobacteria rarely bothers me any more even if
there is
a bit of a food build-up.

For the most part, your plants should thrive on the mulm that gets
deposited.
If you really feel you must clean the substrate (say its been several
years or
it is really, really mucky and/or root-bound) then you probably should
take
plants out and replant them one small area at a time. (Crypts won't like
this
too much..) Once you have cleared an area, vaccume away the junk with
your
python.

-Bruce Geist