First time upgrading tank

[TomDug]

Hello, I have a 10 gallon tank with a small ocellaris clown, and a clean up crew. It's running a sponge filter and monthly water changes. I've had my clown in this tank for a year. I cycled it for 6 months and have had near perfect parameters so far. I had an incident where my green star polyps became peppermint shrimp food, and an hair algae bloom. The shrimp and algae are gone now. I've kept freshwater fish for many years, and want to expand my marine setup now. I was thinking of getting a 40g breeder to expand with. I have a 20g high I would also like to use as an sump. I have never changed tanks or had a sump before. I'll probably drill an hole for the sump overflow. I can also keep both the 10 and 40 running simultaneously while cycling. I don't plan on transferring the rock, but I want to add my sponge filter media and sand to the sump. Is there anything I should know about setting up the sump?
Here is my potential stocking plan-
Ocellaris clown x2
Firefish goby
Lawnmower blenny
Valentini puffer
Ether Flame or Coral beauty dwarf angelfish
I have no idea about inverts, most of the shrimp in my area are absurdly overpriced.
I was also thinking about some very easy low maintenance corals or stationary invertebrates.
I would like your help on finding the best stocking plan. Some question about stocking I have are: Are the dwarf angels dangerous to corals? Would the puffer eat my clean up crew? Are there any fish you would add to this tank?
Thanks for reading my post and I would appreciate it if you could add your insight.
Thanks, -TomDug

 

[Bluecrabber]

I've had a 40g breeder going for a little over 4 years now. My only saltwater tank before moving up to a 125 g I got for Christmas. 40 breeders in my opinion are a really cool tank because they have a decent size that makes for a nice display but they don't take too much work. The other thing that's nice is you don't necessarily need the sump but having one will definitely be a benefit with the added water volume. I would recommend doing a bit of research before drilling the tank and plumbing the sump. Check out gmacreef he has a lot of good info to read through.

Livestock - The fish you included should be good with the exception of the angels. I think your setup might be a bit small for them but I'll let someone with more experience throw their .02 in on it. Also the puffer may end up eating some of your inverts.

Inverts - you don't need much for that size tank. If you're looking for a good price you could go to reefcleaners. They're super friendly and also have pre-set cleaner crew packages based on tank size and if you want snail or crabs or both. I got some snails from there and they are a cheap buy and can ship pretty much anywhere in the lower 48.

Corals - The couple corals I have right now are a kenya tree, candy cane coral, and green star polyp. They are all pretty hard / easy to care for and don't require super duper lighting to keep. Be aware that the kenya tree and green star polyp are known for growing like weeds in some cases so consider yourself warned. Also the candy cane I had was super hardy as I had a small frag of it with 1 head from Petco that ended up dying. I left it in my tank and after a lil bit there was some new growth that took over and now I have like half a dozen heads on the same frag piece that originally died.

Happy reefing friend!

 

[mysticobra]

Go as big as you think you can handle.
I have a 69 gallon red sea max.
It was an upgrade from a 20 year old Oceanic.
I was gonna go smaller but am so happy I didn't.
If I could have afforded it I would have went bigger. But I have financial limits that kept me.at the 69 gallon. But it still was larger than my Oceanic. That was 55. I'm really happy with the setup. And happy I didn't go smaller.
Good luck.
Richard.