How to keep sand clean?

I have finally decided to use sand as a substrate for when I get my axy, now, how should I go about keeping it clean? I will be using a falling water side attached filter.

make sure the flow on the filter isnt strong enough to blow the sand away and the inlet is high enough so any sand cant get sucked up if it gets stirred up.

i siphon mine like normal gravel, giving it a big stir up to combat anerobic pockets as i dont have plants/snails to do the job for me in the axie tank and my sand doesnt get sucked up however in my planted tank i just hoover above the sand to pick up any mess

First I am sorry but what does Inlet mean? And thank you for the help, where would I purchase one of these vacuums?

The inlet is the end of the filter that sucks the water in. You can get vacuums from most pet/aquarium stores. Its pretty much just a length of tubing with a bigger plastic tube on one end. They are usually self starting to save having to suck on the end. They work great.

Oh thank you so much! This is very helpful!

Alex, did you read the recent thread on siphons? I posted this link here http://leesaqpet.com/downloads/pdf/0...0CAT_07.04.pdf which gives you a good idea of how to siphon your tank (although there are better ways to start a siphon (sucking the end of the tube isn't one of them!), but we can explain those later).

Ah hah! I see! I read the thread a bit but I was confused about siphons and vacuums. Is there a difference?

Siphons are vacuums, of sorts. There are some battery-operated vacuums, but I prefer the old fashioned way (they're cheaper too!)