hi, i have a few questions~~~

hi,
i am totally new to salt water fish things!!
today i bought my neighbor's 72 gallon set up,
with rocks/ sand / and a few fishes!!
since this was a last sec thing, he left after i moved everything, i didnt get a chance to ask many questions.


they havent had the time to take care of it, there are algea growing in the tank...


right now i have them in a 20 gallon with sand/ rocks in it and nothing else.
the tank is at 80 degrees. i was wondering if there are any suggestions?

Should i clear out the 72 gallon clean it up and rebuild the tank? and let the fish stay i the 20 gallon for now
(dont have time to clean it out maybe til sunday)

( there is a damsel, a clown fish, 2 shrimps, mandarin gobi, and 2 hermit crabs)

thanks in advance
open to any suggestions

 

Personally I would work on the cleaning aspect with everything situated in the 72g tank. Inverts can help such as snails and hermit crabs, urchins etc with cleaning up algae and some maintenance.

Having a mandarin, It wont do well in a new tank. Because more then likely it was surviving off the live rock and the creatures on the rock in the established tank!

 

I agree, leave the 72 and clean it as it is. Buying a clean up grew will help with any algae and make sure to use RO/DI water when doing water changes. As you do this, it should start clearing up. You can also run ferric oxide to help with phosphates.

 

Reef Keeping 101
This is a good website for beginners. Good luck.

Without all the water parameters and a list of equipment I can't recommend what you should do. Pictures would help too.