sand bed

I'm thinking about removing all or part of my sand bed. Right now, I have about two inches if it were level, but my clown and blenny tend to move things into heaps. I'd like to get some advice about whether to remove it all or if leaving a thin layer would be okay. My motivation is to get better control over algae, bacteria, nitrates, alkaline, etc. I like the look of sand but am not really sure I'm qualified to handle this just yet. Any thoughts (about the sand)?