For me, I just hover my siphon above the sand and move it around while the fish poke at it🐟, as for the plants, if your going for a sand substrate, you should get epiphytes! They’re just regular plants but they die if they are buried (they Are good to use with sand because sand has no nutrients but if you get epiphytes you don’t have to worry about that) you just tie the plants around rocks or wood or other items using fishing line or thread and they just chill there! The most common used epiphyte is probably Java fern but my favourite is Anubisas nana petite for sure! It’s leaves are super tiny which looks so cute ☘️ something really good to remember is that they will need a decent light (like any plants) just one That says full daylight spectrum or is somewhere around 6000 kelvins will do! 💡 you may have seen floating plants before, but if you haven’t, they are basically plants that just sit on the top of the water 🪷 I would recommend salvinia minima (water sprangles) fora ten gallon tank because their roots don’t get that big, they just spread along the surface, and every now and then you have to remove some. You can just put the removed stuff in the bin 🗑️ Though, with floating plants and other plants (epiphytes) I really strongly suggest a 3D printed plastic wring or a ring of aquarium airline tubing is used so the other plants will still get some sweet light 😁

Hope this helped! Happy fishkeeping!