Hi John,
First sorry for the delay in responding to you. I have a house full of company and suppose that many people are away for the long weekend.
If you are patient I would follow Eric Bonreman's advice as outlined here
The Building of a Reef (tank). keyozoxmfc (Mark) on our forums has done this with his tank with very good results. Here is his tank journal
My 50 Gallon Reef.
For some mysterious reason both of my clowns in my nano died on the same day at the beginning of March. I have frogspawn, ricordia, mushrooms, zoanthids, colt, sun,
GSP and Pocillopora corals and a bunch of hermits and snails in it. My pod population has EXPLODED in that tank and the water parameters are as steady as a rock. After watching this I
know that the next time I cycle a tank I will go the long way.
No matter which way you decide to go I would drip
acclimate everything into the new tank. Be especially careful of your snails which are sensitive to osmotic shock.
If you "can't" wait, I would move the hardy corals first and watch them for a few days. Unless you are having an algae bloom I would not add a CUC until after there is something for them to clean.
Then, I would add one of you fish to the new tank, wait a couple of days to make sure that your parameters are steady then move half of the clean up crew from your 29. Wait a few more days then move the other 2 fish, monitor parameters and when they are stable move the rest of the CUC. Finally move the more delicate corals. I have never kept a cocoa worm so I don't know when it should be moved.
As far as your clowns hosting in the LPS, it depends. How does the coral look? Sometimes this works fine and others the fish are so rough on the coral that they kill it. Separation is the best and possible only solution. I would not consider adding an anemone until you tank is stable and at least 6 month old. There are also many reports of the fish choosing other things over the anemone.
