To maintain the sand is not even that much work to be honest...
I personally just clean the layer off the top ever other WC, with a pole thing I have I basically rake through the sand moving it around all the way to the bottom...
I just switched to sand and I love it. I think its less work to clean. I just hover my vac right over the poo and it's sucked right up. Easy peazy. Then every couple weeks or so I stick my hand in there and mess the sand up so I don't get the anerobic bacteria. My fish move it around some too so I don't have to do it too often. I was floored by how much gunk was trapped in the gravel that got stirred up when I started pulling out the gravel to do the switch. And that was with weekly vacuming of the gravel! I don't think I'll ever use gravel again.
