Substrate advice

[SmokeOneLV]

The plan was to setup a fowlr tank on a budget and upgrade piece by piece as I progress to a reef in about 2 years (my kids are young can't afford to feed the reef and pay for daycare). Right now i have around 100lbs or more of dry rock (use to be live 8 years ago). Was thinking about going with live sand to help seed the rock and to feed a diamond back that I would like to get but that quickly adds a couple hundred dollars to the plan. I was wondering would crush coral work for a diamond back because a guy in town has crushed coral for sale that would only be $100 to make a 1" bed. Or should I jist scrap the diamond back and go with the bare bottom and use that money in another area. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

This is the 125g as of tonight.

 

[CodyRVA]

Just my .02, but I wouldn't add crushed coral to a system for any reason what so ever.