Hello from Central Florida

For the reason you stated, that is why I always recommend only buying fish that you can keep indefinitely. It is hard to give your pet away Your SFE may actually be fine, except that they can become aggressive once mature. Your smaller fish may become meals at some point...

As far as changing the substrate and adding rock, here is what I would do: remove a little of the CC every few days. Once it is gone, add some new dry rock (from a place like Marco Rocks, Reefrocks, etc). I would not add live rock as you will get some die off which can result in ammonia in your tank. Then, add "dead" sand after your new rock is in. You will likely get a diatom bloom after adding the new rock and sand, but it will go away quickly.

And for filtration, I would definitely at least plan on getting a hang-on-back skimmer. I am a big fan of the Eshopps HOB skimmers. A PSK-75H should do well for that tank. But there are other good options as well.

 

Right on.. Thanks Marshall

When I started I was like a kid in a candy store buying fish I never should have bought in the first place. The Clown Trigger is the last one to go eventually. I have about a 3" base of CC. How much is "a little" to start removing?

 

Well glad you now know better

For the CC, you want to avoid releasing any nasties into the water, as well as shocking the system by removing too much, too fast. As someone mentioned in another thread (yours perhaps?), the CC does contain a lot of your beneficial bacteria. I would not touch your filter pads in the HOB filter until your new rock and sand has been in for a few weeks. Those pads contain a lot of the bacteria as well. I would recommend getting a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge. Keep a close eye on this throughout the process so you know if you are getting into trouble or not.

 

Good stuff thanks! Yes I started a topic in the sand forum