Plate Corals' Neighborhood

I have recently acquired a nice short tentacle plate coral (Fungia repanda). It is on a black sand bed at the bottom of a 110.
It is beautiful and in good health right now.

A while ago I received an order (Coral Special) from GARF and they included some of their famous GARF Grunge for free. I seeded my tank with this stuff which ranged in size from dust to pebble.
It is these pebble sized pieces as well as extra hermit crab shells that are causing me concern.

When I placed my Fungia I cleaned the bottom debris away from the area, however as you may imagine the waves bring this debris right back.
After about two days it is time to scrape the shells and pebbles back. I am concerned about this!

First, will a few pebbles or shells cause enough of a restriction on its' inflation that it could cause harm?

Second, is there any accepted barrier that can be put in place? I envision a ring, like landscape edging that keeps mulch in, a round barrier depressed into the sand but protruding 1/2"-ish to keep debris out, away.

Does anyone have experience with this? I cringe every time I feel the scooper bump into the hard skeleton, mind you this has only happened a few times but it's akin to dropping a baby to me.
Sure they are resilient but by the same token this isn't the way to raise the little guy.

Any help or suggestion appreciated!


P.S. Hi everyone....first post

 

the plate will be fine!

 

Welcome to 3Reef.

I would recommend just moving the larger pieces out of the tank. Any bacteria that was on the grunge has now migrated all over the tank.