I don't know what you mean by consume. The sandbed will have nitrifying bacteria, but you will still be left with nitrate and phosphate as a result. At least, this is the way I understand the process.
If you remove the detritus, you remove the resulting nitrate and phosphate - unless you have chemicals that do that for you. I'm not up on biopellets or those things, but I do have elbow grease and don't mind getting my hands wet
Video I shot this morning
Detritus the Day After Mid-Week Detritus Export. As you will see, there is still detritus in the tank. It only really clears up after I siphon it out during a 20% water change - only to begin reappearing again that night.