can I use this stuff I found on the islands in my tank?

[blowfish]

I only have an 8 gallon saltwater tank now, and all the stuff in it I found on islands around were I live, I have a peice of driftwood with all sorts of seaweed and barnicles on it. Can i move this in to my 28 gallon reef tank when I get it? An I alos got live sand there, Can I move this to my other tank? And I also got a big hunk of live sea weed, can I move this too? Im going to move my 2 small stone crabs, my hermit crab, my 2 sea urchins, my lightning welke, my clams and my lizard fish deffinetly.

[FishDaddy]

Hi Blowfish,
I have known people who have saltwater tanks who live near the ocean and put all sorts of critters they find in them. It's hit or miss as many of these critters will prey on the others. You also run the risk of contamination from parasites, disease, etc.
These type tanks can be fun but if you are serious about having a reef tank with corals, nix the idea for now of putting anything in it collected at random from the sea or shore.

Follow the advice in the books that have been suggested and go slowly and patiently to develop an ecosystem that will support corals and a limited amount of fish and inverts that are compatable with one another.
The concept is to start with a clean tank; use proven and tested equipment; sand and rocks that are as free as possible from contaminants; invertebrates that are non-predatory; and try to develop a healthy system with excellent water quality for later introduction of healthy fish and corals.
Dick