i use sand in my tanks (i keep african cichlids and haps). they absolutely love to play in it and move it around and trench out holes. as far as cleaning you dont siphon sand like you do gravel-all i do is i run my hands through the sand (you have to release little gas bubbles trapped in there, or else it turns toxic and can kill your fish if its not moved around by you or the fish), then take the huge end off of my python and just skim that over to get the poop. you will find that poop just settles on top of the sand, not in it-like with gravel.
ive never seen any fish actually eat and swallow sand. i think you will absolutely love sand-it looks great and isnt hard to clean.. i use pool filter sand-its cheap and pretty clean.
