How do you clean your sand?

[ASIN28]

Hey all,
So I have a 3 inch Carib sea Fiji pink sand bed in my 120G tank. The tank has been running for about 2 months now and seeing small phases of different algae which comes and goes. I’ve been having a film green/brown algae that covers the sand bed and frequently go in there with the vaccum and get it up (well I think it’s coming up anyway)
It seems as if the vaccum I purchased a just moving around the sand it is not sucking up loose light waste/etc from the sand bed.
How do you guys go about cleaning your sand beds and what type of vaccum do you use, besides sand sifters.
Thanks in advance

 

[F i s h y]

I know you said besides sifters but thats all I really use. Check into sand sifting gobies, snails that burrow, and not my first recommendation but sand sifting stars.