No tool. Sounds like you are doing it right though. It could be a build of scale and metals in the water that can sometime appear to be sand. I would start using some metal and scale control in the water, and that should start to help break down and remove the metals from the water. You may need to clean your filter a bit after using the metal control. But yes, they should just turn and twist out. Be careful though as you could break the tabs on the jet and then it wont stay in after that.