Crushed coral for substrate Help!

[Max]

Ok, I may have messed up again . I have a nice 2 inch sand bed in my 44 gallon and I really dont like it, sand storms are a mess in my tank because of its shape its hard to put the powerhead in a place with any flow that wont blow my sand floor all over. Anyhow, I set up my 55 and really didnt want any substrate in this one but didnt like the idea of going bare so I put in a 1/2" to 1" layer of the biggest size crushed coral I could find. Its big stuff. It has small shells in it that my small hermits have already found a liking to for shell replacement.
My problem is this, The more I read, and Scott being such a big downer on crushed coral sub has got me to rethink it. I trust your opinion Scott !!
The problem is that the coral is now home to what im sure is 100's of seastars.
Now I was thinking of just covering up the coral with a layer of sand but that may smother my seastars. I could just remove it all but there again I really dont want to disturb the inhabitants.
My thinking was if I dont use a very thick layer that it wouldnt be to bad.
What should I do. My tank is setup nice but not to far that I couldnt redo things but I think id be doing more harm than good as far as the inhabitants go. The stars really love the openess of the coral so Im torn.

HELP !!

[zhenya]

Max,

I don't think you should have any problems if you stay on top of things. Mainly, since your "sand" bed is not going to be functioning as part of filtration, I would try to increase the flow in the tank to keep all the nasties in suspension longer and vacuum anything that is leftover on the substrate at water changes. You may need to turn to other filtration methods in the future, like refugium and more powerful skimming.
As things stand, watch it for a time and don't really increase your bioload rapidly, take your time in adding fish or corals. One thing at the time and observe how your system responds, if your systems filtering capacities can handle additions.
There are some tanks that use large crashed coral for substrate that are successful, Wayne Shang's tank comes to mind.

[Ninong]

There are some tanks that use large crashed coral for substrate that are successful, Wayne Shang's tank comes to mind.

zhenya,

Just for the record, Wayne Shang has a 3" DSB composed entirely of Carib-Sea Seaflor special grade reef sand (1.0-2.0mm) (pers. comm.).

[kevinpo]

Hello,
The reason the starfish are there in large numbers is that the crushed coral is collecting detritus, uneaten food, and fish waste. This can lead to elevated nitrate levels. If you have intense enough lights it can also lead to algae outbreaks. You can vacuum the crushed coral every couple of weeks or so with a gravel-vac type device but you will also remove most of the starfish and other micro-fauna. To be sure you will not remove all of them and they reproduce quickly.

So can you be successful using crushed coral? The answer is most certainly yes but you will have to take the above into consideration.

HTH,
Kevin