Starting new - any advice

So I had a bit of a crash on my tank. It was my fault entirely - I got a new light in but didn't have the time to build an appropriate stand and my old light was bad which resulted in a cyano and green hair algae break out, so i just decided to leave the lights off until I had time to build a stand. Then I got married (yay!) and unfortunatley thus started the neglect, no water changes, etc. Fortunately I didn't have any livestock other than the CUC, and while I don't like the fact that some of them have died due to my neglect (a few are still alive) many of them had died by the point that the neglect started. I had a couple of hermits that came with my order of CUC and they went crazy looking for different shells (lesson learned there, either no hermits or a ton of different sized shells).

Point is, I have the LR and LS still, but I think it's time to start over. I'm unsure of whether I want to sell this set up and make some money and start over later, maybe sell this and downsize from the 12g AIO Aquapod to a 10g set up with a 10g sump, or if I just want to stick with what I've got so far and just take out the LR and get new LS?

What do you folks think? If I do decide to just restart with what I have currently, what steps do I need to take? Get new LS, rinse equipment, start a new cycle? Can I keep the LS and just rinse that? What should I do with the remaining CUC?



Thanks!

 

I thought about that, but the tank is in our lab, so I'm limited in space. That's one reason I'm considering doing the 10g tank with the sump, as it adds more water to the overall system, thus more stability, without a HUGE space issue (I can keep the sump below). I'm also limited in funds, so a smaller tank was a better idea in the beginning.



Edit: fixed a typo, added last sentence.

 

True, and after further looking a 20g isn't too terribly much more than a 10g tank, so maybe I could make a 20g sump? Limited in funds and reef keeping are no easy duo, but I only plan on some beginner coral frags for now - stuff that's relatively inexpensive to start up, easy to keep and pretty hardy. I'm not getting a fish as I'd be afraid of killing it, and that's not something I'm willing to risk right now. So coral frags and CUC are pretty much the name of the game.

I'm trying to figure out what it would cost me to start up the 10g/20g sump set up versus just sticking with what I've got already.