Help: Rebuild/Rock Problems/Start over?

[ReefKnot]

I've found myself faced with a dilemma, which may prove to be very useful, and I need some advice. I was a newbie (still am) when I set this tank up so some of the things I did may seem odd, but I was just going on advice, which I now have an opportunity to fix some problems I've been having.

I have a 29g tank 30"x18"x12" which has been going for a little more than 3 months. I cycled the tank with no rock, and bought LR straight from my LFS. I now have 30lbs of LR in there with 2 ocellaris, a cleaner shrimp, 4 blue leg hermits, and 10 astrea snails. Yesterday I removed and returned the Bangaii cardinal I had in there too, but I had to move a bunch of rocks around to catch it. Looking at the tank now, I want to place the rocks in a aquascape which would be beneficial to corals that I may want to add in the future.

Heres the problem; My tank is 12" deep (wide) and the rock I have is all about 5-6" wide and long (they are all big). Personally, now that I know more about the hobby, I really find most of my rock ugly and hard to work with. I would like to have some open sand in the front, and a bit in the back for water flow. That ends up making me pile my rock into a single wall, which isn't super stable, but more importantly, leaving almost no ledges for corals. And I want some depth when I look at the reef, not a flat wall.

Heres my possible solution. I have an empty 10g tank sitting at my parent's place. I was thinking about cycling it, adding some of my nicer pieces of LR to it, and once its cycled, moving my fish, shrimp, and as many snails and crabs that I can fit in it. Then right away cleaning my 29g, possibly getting new substrate, but definately buying some dry LR, something I like, setting it up in the tank properly with acrylic rods, and cycling my tank again. This would mean leaving my livestock in the 10g until my 29g is fully cycled. I know that would be tough on the bioload but it is temporary.

This would be take me a while to do, but I would be able to build my reef the proper way, rather than buying 10 rocks weight 3-4 pounds each and stacking them in hopes they wont fall over. And with the tall but fairly shallow 29g I have, I would be able to build the reef how I want.

OK sorry for that being so long, but I'm sick of watching my reef fall over, or trying to build it again when some pieces wont fit without touching front and back glass.... Any advice on this plan would be awesome! Thanks!

[betamed]

two clowns will be fine short term in a 10. just transfer the rock and some old tankwater and your set. eave it up as QT if you can. Pegging rocks with acrylic rods was the best thing I did when I upgraded.

[mnavick]

How about hammer and chisel then some rods and epoxy to make what you want with what you have. Check out Marco Rocks, has some good info on aquascaping.

[ReefKnot]

Thanks