Question: Best way to clean sand?

I have recently changed my axies from gravel to sand, however the device I used to clean the gravel doesn't seem to work for the sand. I end up losing most of the sand in the process and was wondering what other people do to keep their sand clean.

I used a flour sifter or just a kitchen strainer and washed the sand twice with it.

I hover my gravel cleaner just above the sand and it seems to pick any nasties up fine without collecting much sand at atll. For any discarded food or poop I use a turkey baster :happy:

Ugh... I have 3 tanks... After trying sand in my first one, my next two are bare-bottomed.
I've still got sand in my first one, because Puck who's in there LOVES to dig little wells for me... but he also cover his poop up for me to go hunting for...! It's so tough to keep clean, It's pure white sillica sand and I've also got a big wooden log in there which makes the sand dirty with little flakes, no matter how many times I rinse!

So until I find a quicker method, I'll just remove as much water as I would normally for a water change, then I just use my turkey baster all over the bottom, taking as much sand as I have to just to get up all the dirt... then squirt it into a jug, let it settle (the dirt rises to the top) then pour away the water slowly and carefully. I keep doing this until I pour away all the dirt. Then as I'm replacing the water from the water change, I use the same jug and the sand just re-joins the tank with the replaced water.

Funny thing is - I used to take Puck out for the water change but if I replace the water very gradually, I just leave him in there. He seems to like it... and when I'm hunting round for poop with my baster, he just follows me round the tank.

After cleaning the tank I let the sand that's been sucked up settle on the bottom of the bucket I used, then tip off the water, give the sand a good wash and tip it back in, I use a small tube like a little vacuum cleaner just to scoop up small debris each week and give it a good suck with the bigger gravel cleaner once a month.

I use the regular gravel-vac (siphon with a fat end on it), but I hold my finger over the outflow to better control the speed of water flow. If it's a bit slower it works just fine. If I do siphon out a small amount of sand, I don't worry about it. In most cases I have more sand than needed, and I can always replenish it if I need to. In several years I've never needed to.

Thanks guys this has been really helpful