I've wanted to remove my sand many times. It's only there for my two leopard wrasses and I've actually pushed the sand so it's entirely contained in the back middle of my tank so only about half of my tank has a sandbed.
I re-homed my watchman goby and have never had a CUC so some form of sand maintenance is required hence my regular turkey bastings of the sand but some direct removal needs to be added to my routine.
getting a full length siphon tube under my rock tower and past my corals will be tough. I'm going to slice my siphon tube in half to allow for this. If that still doesn't work I'll grab a spatula.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XbCWmY0eqY