Dude sand is soo much easier to clean. All the feces stay on top of it and you can scoop it up very fast. Id say go for it. Try some pool filter sand, you can buy it at home depot for $5 for a 50 lb bag. Get 3 of these and rinse them under the faucet while stirring the sand before putting it in.
Another benefit of the sand is that no uneaten food stays under it like the gravel. Sometimes with the feces and uneaten food in the gravel i used to have i would do like a 30% water change and the gravel would still have gunk. Most of the time fish kick it up and it goes into the filter!