Cleaning Gravel in a 55 gallon Help

OK so Ive had my aquarium up for a little over a month and ive got platys, mollys, and guppies in there, and of course a bunch of fry and started with 1 snail and now have about 40. My question is, what is the best way to clean the gravel of my tank with little harm to all the fry and fish in there. Since these are my first big tanks Im kinda lost at this point. Any info/suggestion would be greatly appreaciated! Thanks!

If you have a fine mesh type net you could aways hold all the fry in there while you work. In my fry tanks (they are all bare bottom) if I happen to suck a few fry out with the hose they just go into a white bucket and I net them back into the tank. They are so small that it really seems to do no harm to them.

Awesome, i need to clean the gravel, and ive got alot of fry all over the aquarium, I thought I would just leave the fry in there and let nature take its course, they have plenty of cover and will be adding more plants for them as well. I need to post pics of my aquariums as well. Thanks for the help. I suppose I need to pull all the decor out of the aquarium as well?

Shouldn't have to really pull anything out. Get a sphion that fits in the tank well. You can use a small one for the little places and a larger one for the clear areas. Overall just do your best to protect the fry (a large fine mesh net would work) and just clean it out like any other tank.

Now if you have anything in there that might build up dirt in or under it then it wouldn't be a really bad idea to take it out. Pretty much like anything else.

I myself don't do a lot of gravel vacs. Few and far between actually.

However, if wave the vac tube around a bit first, any fry should vacate prior to plunging it into the gravel.

I agree. If you have lots of fry just do a WATER change, dont worry about the gravel for now. If you've got an ornament heavy tank, or you feed alot (understandable with lots of fry) then you'd have to siphon your gravel or risk your water quality. If you're siphoning your water into a bucket (like I do) it's easy enough to spot the fry floating around in there and gently net them out.

Most fry are skiddish enough that as soon as you wiggle that big piece of plastic in the tank they head in the opposite direction.

Great thank you for the awesome Info, that helps a ton! Cant wait to get it done. Im only feeding twicw a day, and have 4 more moms that are ready to drop, 2 plays & 2 mollys, geez they are busy in there. LOL! I luv seeing the fry tho. May just do a small water change and keep an eye on my levels first. Thanks again!