Need help with Aquascaping a 14 gal BioCube!

[webster.nano]

Dear Nano-Reefers,

I am a total newbie and in the process of
setting up a 14 gal BioCube in Rochester, NY.

Two days ago I aquascaped with approx. 8-9 lbs of live rock
(leaving some room for adding corals attached to live-rock
at a later stage I thought...).

However, my plan to provide good water flow in the tank,
and to provide many hiding places for fish and shrimp,
involved aquascaping a big cave in the middle of my rock work,
and additionally, I made sure that no rock touches the glass sides
of the cube (s.t. I can clean with the MagnaFloat), and
no rock touches the back (s.t. fish can swim around the
mountain in the back, without having to reverse swimming direction
all the time, and also, so that water can freely flow behind the mountain to ensure good circulation).

My problem is that it looks to me like the tank is over-crowded
with live rock!
The plateau on top is pretty high up, and if I place corals on this one,
they will be difficult to view for an adult standing by the tank,
and this area may become dry during water changes.
And there doesn't seem to be many other places I can place corals etc. without
having them bumping into the glass walls or the back.

Please see attached photos with views from the left, front and right side.
Areas circled in yellow are free from live rock. The tank looks to me more crowded
than actually shows up on the photos!



I plan to stock with a clown fish, some shrimp, two gobies,
snails and various soft corals (hammerhead, frog spawn).

What should I do?

1) Forget about having a cave in the middle and change
the aquascaping s.t. it is just a mountain in the middle of the
tank, with no cave and with the top plateu a little bit lower than it currently is?

2) Jam the rocks against the back wall to use that space
to be able to lower the mountain?

3) Get rid of some of the live rock?

4) Is it OK to have corals go "dry" during water changes
if they are high up on the live rock or will this stress or damage them?
(I haven't found any pointers on this in my books nor on the web)

I would appreciate any advice you experienced nano reefers can give me!

Sincerely -

Martin

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/507/173200IMG_5604_mod.jpg
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/507/173200IMG_5605_mod.jpg
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/507/173200IMG_5607_mod.jpg

[RooFish]

I had a 12 gallon for a while, and had the same problem at first. (I should mention, most of my experience at the time was with african cichlids, so I was big into caves and gaps in the rockwork) I ended up with a big mountain in the middle, and really liked it. Also, mine was all the way back against the wall.

Thoughts:

-I wouldn't get rid of any LR, its always a good thing to have
-The fish you mentioned aren't huge swimmers (the clownfish will chill near a coral if it finds one it likes and the gobies will probably perch or swim near the rocks most of the time) so having a gap behind the rock probably isn't a big deal, like it would be if you wanted a 6-line wrasse or something
-Caves make a gap where you can't have corals very easily, unless they're on the sand which would just fill the cave
-Exposing corals to air during water changes probably won't kill them, but it won't make them happy, so it's best to avoid that.

Hope that helps