Properly Cycled Tank?

[BigDylan420]

It has been a while since I posted on here but let me give you a brief review of my situation. I had a ton of trouble with my tank and the fishy cycle. I was doing tons of water changes and plagued with cloudy water until recently. My tank kit came from wal mart and about a week ago the filter died. So I went to petco and got an aquaclear 50 filter for my tank and ever since my water has been crystal clear. My tank is a 20g fresh water and consists of.... 2 sunburst platties, 1 white platty, 1 yellow platty, 3 cory cats, 2 long finned zebra dainos, and 2 Praecox Rainbow ?? They are rainbowfish that have red tipped fins and I had to buy them as a pair? Anyways I tested my water earlier and everything looked great. The nitrates were at 5 ppm which is completely safe right? Now my main question is how often should I gravel vac my tank and when I do how much water should I remove??? Also how often do you all remove and clean your decorations if at all??

I also wanted to say thanks to all who helped me finally achieve a beautiful to look at tank after all the misdirections I recieved from petco. It was long and tough journey but now it is well worth it.
Thanks a lot:headbang2:

[Slappy*McFish]

A gravel vac weekly with your water changes is fine. Most folks change anywhere from 25-50% water weekly depending on bioload. I usually don't remove and clean decorations as it isn't needed, but if it looks unsightly to you (covered with algae, etc) then pull them out and clean them. I clean filters as needed. (I avoid letting 'gunk' build up in the filters) Depending on the bioload and feeding this may be as often as weekly or as infrequent as monthly. Keep your filters cleaned! This will insure nitrates remain low and the filters are working at optimum efficiency. Rinse the filter media in your bucket of siphoned tank water rather than under the tap.

[Hooked Newbie]

What he said. ^^^

[jm1212]

Preacox like to be in schools, and like more room than a 20 gallon can provide. they are pretty active. the danios should be fine though.

[TheXman]

I agree with everything people have said above.
Don't get too hung up on the nitrate level, even if it goes up to 20 you're still fine. It's the ammonia and nitrites that you have to worry about. Make sure that they stay undetectable.