Cleaning sand?

[tumptyteapot]

Is there a nack to cleaning the stuff that floats on top of the sand? I googled and found a suggestion to move the syphon tube in small circles to create eddies but it still isn't getting a lot of it up. The Axies don't seem to mind terribly if it is there or not but I'm not sure it's good for them.

 

[Tephra]

You can never truly get rid of all of it... but yes, pretty much like you said, siphon it up. A cycled tank should take care of the rest.