A skimmer question and a substrate question

I am new to the whole saltwater thing so please bare with me.

I hear crushed coral as a substrate is bad, but if its Fish-Only can I avoid having to change to sand?

And could you recomend a skimmer for a 45 gallon tank, as of right now I have a Prizm skimmer(deluxe version if that matters) which I hear is a terrible skimmer and am looking to upgrade but I am getting conflicting reviews on the internet so I would like some first-hand opinion.

Thank you for your time and knowledge.

 

cc is fine for fish only, but if you ever intend to keep corals(and you will end up wanting them), then put in sand right from the beginning. It's easier to keep a tank balanced with sand. AquaC Remora would be a very good skimmer for your 45!

 

IMO, CC is bad all around, doesnt matter if its fish only or reef. Sand is the way to go, esp. if you decide later down the road that you want some corals. Do it right the first time around. I had a 45g tank and still I placed a skimmer. You can not go wrong with a skimmer. Luna

 

Ive never had CC, so I cant comment on that. But +1 to wanting corals. I thought FOWLR when first getting into this hobby, and now have more corals than fish
As far as skimmers go, I have an octopus BH-100F on my 40 and love it. Works like a dream. I wrote a review on it that you can see here: http://www.3reef.com/forums/protein-skimmers/user-review-octopus-bh-100f-52288.html

 

You can use play sand from home depot

 

NOOOOOOO never use those sands for aquariums. They contain Silicates. Luna

 

Yeah you can- and you can also suffer from the largest case of diatom algae for the rest of your tank's existance.

Stick with reef-safe sand only.

 

Sorry, but terrible, terrible advice:-/ Never use play sand!

 

If i was going to remove the cc how would i go about it? The tank is already filled with mixed saltwater. Could I just add sand on top of the crushed coral and use a gravel tidy? Or would i have to drain the tank? Thanks again!

 

If you look around the net you will find lots of success with just plain play sand and most of the others are I heard it will this or that. I've used it for 6 months and have no issues with it. I truly believe this to be a myth.