First time aquarium, I have a 55g tank that has a lot of artificial plants, when doing a water changed they say to clean the stones on the bottom for waste If I do a water change every week like suggested do I have to remove all of the plants each time

Are you doing water changes every week while your aquarium cycles?

You do not need to remove the plants from the aquarium when doing water changes.

Also, until your aquarium has completed it's cycle, it's advisable to not disturb the gravel. Lots of good bacteria will live in the gravel.

We got a weed mat and put it about 20cms away from our filter... it's basically a plastic mat that looks like grass, it catches all the left over food and poopies as they get sucked towards the filter which you can just clean out and it means you don't have to clean the filter as much... just change the carbon.