Crushed Coral or Sand

[Saltyone]

Well a week ago i draind my 55gal freshwater tank and changed it to saltwater. I already have 3 percula(?)Clowns
3 Yellow tailed damisels and some live rock (which i noticed today had some type of hermit crabs in them.
Anyway my question is I have crushed coral in there now, bu ti see to add anemonies for the clowns they need sand to survive. Can i have both sand and the crushed coral as a substrate or only either or????

[VoodooChild]

I would change to sand if you could. There are some good sites around (someone please post them?) that tell you how to do it without affecting things too much. I haven't gotten things totally cycled yet, but from what I understand, lr and a dsb in a tank only require water changes to take out fish released chemicals (growth stunters), they're that good at removing nitrates. I think that anemones need perfect lighting though and don't do well in established tanks with great lighting, nonetheless one that is under 6 months old. You may want to rethink that.

[OrionGirl]

Clowns don't need anemones to survive in your tank. They will be just fine without one. Right now, your tank is cycling. Ammonia and nitrites are damaging to fish, and will quickly kill an anemone. You might want to consider returning all the fish and doing a fishless cycle.

Damsels are very territorial. You won't be able to add much to that tank without it being harrased a lot. Also, you will have problems with the clowns (which are also damsels). One will soon start to turn into a female and will pair up with one of the remaining males. The odd male will be chased, beaten and likely killed when this happens.

Please do some research on cycling a SW tank. You are trying to make the process move really fast, and are likely going to end up with some dead fish and critters.