Clean gravel?

[pedge]

I have a well-established aquarium, freshwater with live plants and lots of gravel snails and the like. It has a biological filter system with no under gravel filtration. I was wondering if I should clean the gravel?

We have an abudance of undergravel snails that have assisted with the biological setup of the tank, but I'm not sure that I should leave 5 years of accumulated waste. If I do clean deep into the gravel it would be a huge and possibly unnecessary undertaking.

Any help with this that anyone can offer is very welcome.

 

[TKOS]

Since you have plants and gravel, all that years o sludge is essentially soil now. I would leave it. I tend to gravel vacuum the surface of the gravel and leave what lies underneath alone, excpet in the feeding area where there are not plants.

 

[pedge]

Alright! Thank you very much for your advice, you've saved me a lot of work.