I was hoping someone might offer some light shed on my problem. In the past, I had a 30 gal fish only tank with black moon sand and a very aggresive fish, recently i have restarted a tank at home away from work because of the excitement of my 4 yr old daughter. I started a fish only community tank with a couple of clowns and a tang. I also used white crushed coral and was told that i might need a different clean up crew than usual because of the roughness. any suggestions. Thanks in advance for the help.

i suggest returning the tang to the LFS ... the tank is way to small for a tang.

jmann - Welcome to Talkingreef!

I have crushed coral in my tank and I use the typical clean up crew - blue legged hermits, astrea/turbo snails, cleaner shrimp. I believe the crushed coral can be a problem for livestock that burrow or sift sand (such as certain gobies and sea stars).

Typically when I do my water changes, I just siphon a portion of the substrate to keep it clean. Seems to work just fine...the key is water changes, to not over stock the tank and good water movement. If you keep your nitrates and phosphates in check, then you can keep your clean up crew pretty basic.

As IReefIKeeper mentioned, if you have a 30 gallon tank then you really should return the tang to the LFS.

Jason

Hi jmann and :welcome: to TR. It is fun to share the wonder of our tanks with our children. I catch my big tough 19 year old son watching mine every time he is home from college. :) I agree with the advice you have been given. The reason you should vacuum the crushed coral is because it will collect detritus. What filtration are you using on your tank?

Thanks for the help, I have purchased some hermit crabs and cleaner shrimp, and trying to make a deal with the fish store on the tang. The bad news is, i live in a small town in west-texas and the closest fish store is over 100 miles. still cant wait every trip though. I am now trying to hunt down a good filtering system, protein skimmer for my 30 gal.

This seems outrageous but, the only filter you really need is LR and a protein skimmer.