Hello; Not sure what you do when cleaning a planted tank, but uprooting plants is not the thing to do very often. Most of my plants have survived the occasional replanting so yours likely will,
I use a gravel vac but do not use it near my rooted plants. In some tanks this means that most of the gravel cannot be cleaned with it. The good thing is that a densly planted tank will have the help of the rooted plants in dealing with some of the detritus in their area. I also like to keep some snails, MTS for digging thru the gravel.
I can place a siphon end near the top of the gravel sround my plants to get the lose stuff but try to avoid disturbing the roots or damaging the leaves.
