What to do?
 

I have a 33 gallon tank with 1 Green spotted Puffer, 2- 3 stripe damsels, 2 green chromis, 1 bicolor blenny, and 1 lawnmower blenny. Filteration right now is 2- Aqua Clear 300 with an air powered skimmer for a 30 gallon tank. I have 1 - 2.5 pound chunk of live rock and 40 pounds of crushed coral substrate. No live sand as yet and the live rock only has minimal coraline and growths. My plans are to add more live rock as money allows, probably a piece at a time and replacing the crushed coral with live sand as I have read that the coral is to sharp for the bugs that live in sand, I am planning on doing a sump, 25 gallon, and I would like to squeeze in a 10 gallon refugium if I can figure out how to fit it into the stand. I figure that this would give me about 56 gallons of water, allowing space for drainage of the overflows and such. My question is, would this work or should I move the tank to my 55 gallon and add the same sump and refugium? I have no real idea what I am doing, yet, but I am looking at rearranging 8 tanks to make room for my new 72 gallon FW tank and would like to do it right the first time. Thanks for any advice.

The bigger the better... as I'm sure you're figuring out with you FW. Keep the FW in the small tank and go reef in the 72. Same sump, and refugium. Problem Solved.

Unfortunately, the upgrade is to accomodate my pleco, George. Otherwise, YEESSSSSS.

reply
 

The 55 gallon tank will be a welcome upgrade for your fish. It will also allow you to easily change your substrate, or go bare bottom. The sump and fuge sounds good too. The more water you have, the less drastic any fluctuations in water chemistry will be. You may need to upgrade the skimmer eventually, as your bio load increases. If time isn't an issue you might consider cycling the new tank before moving the actual live stock over.