Hello R2R! I am in a tricky situation right now and I was hoping for some advice.
Im familiar with the basics of saltwater fish keeping, but Ive never had anything larger than a 30 gallon with 3 fish. My problem is that I recently acquired 5 fish and a skunk cleaner shrimp after a girl I know told me she was moving away and leaving her saltwater tank at her moms house, who said she "wasn't going to take care of the tank". Unfortunately for me, I have a soft heart and I volunteered to take everything in the tank so they wouldn't be left to die slowly.
And now I have 6 fish and a shrimp split between a 30 gallon and a 10 gallon, each with live rock and power heads. As you can imagine, the tanks are overstocked and I'm trying to figure out what to do. I have a few empty tanks including a 40 long and a 125g, but as I learn more about sumps and everything you need for larger tanks, I feel like I'm in over my head and I'm starting to panic
I guess my question is, do I try and set up these other tanks or would it maybe be better to get an AIO tank? Can I get away with maybe using an HOB refugium and HOB filter instead of a sump? Im not too worried about aesthetic, I just want the fish to be healthy.
The fish are: ocellaris clownfish, algae blenny, blue damsel, three spot damsel, three strip damsel, a neon dotty back and a skunk cleaner shrimp, along with some hermits and snails. The dotty back and three spot are in the 10 gallon with live rock and everything else is in the 30g.
Id like to stay under $1000, not sure if that's possible. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
