I need to clean a cave.in a betta tank.

Can I put my hand in there and what should I do before I put my hand in there to get it?

 

Can you take it out to clean it?

I reach into my tanks almost daily and nothing terrible has ever happened (except once when I reached elbow deep into an old 29 gallon that had just been filled, and it cracked right down the back). I have a clean shower loofah that has never been used for soap that I use to scrub my hands and arms first, clean under my nails if they're dirty and then rinse with conditioned water. Some of the fish like to play when my hands go in now.

As for the cave, you should be able to just scrub it off depending on the material.

 

Putting your hands in the tank is fine. What I suggest is that you ONLY use hot water to scrub your hands. No chemicals, soaps, or any type of detergents....strictly hot water. Rinse your hands together for about a minute or so. Also, make sure that you don't have any cuts or open wounds on yourhands. If you are not comfortable with that, I would also suggest using gloves, that are food handling safe, and you can also find gloves at your LFS, or online.
If you decide to use you bare hands, wash your hands afterwards.

 

I always wash my hands (soap & water) before and after contacting tank water. It never occurred to me to not use soap, but I always rinse well. I too would vote to take the cave out and rinse/scrub it, then return it to the tank. Good luck!

 

I want to take it out clean it in hot water (no soap) then let it dry for a day to remove chlorine then put it in does that sound good.

 

Sounds fine. I would probably not wait the day for it to dry. Maybe just add a little more dechlorinator to the tank, but I may not be as cautious as you.