[mseepman]

Welcome to Canreef! Glad to have you on-board.

I have found that the group here on Canreef are indeed awesome to work with. If I had know about this site when I began, I would have had a lot less trouble than I did.

That being said, sorry to hear about your original experience with the tank crash. Nothing that anyone here wants to experience. As for your questions, here would be what I suggest:

Some people choose to either epoxy their rock together or to drill a central hole through some of them and run an acrylic rod through to hold it all together. You will also find that many people have build an under-carriage of PVC pipes and then attached their rock to that in order to have stability. I have a 70G tank and am just about to start a 16G nano and I plan on trying the acrylic rod.

As for your corals, pipe organ can be quite durable so it's usually a good choice for a novice. The blue fan you speak of sounds like a gorg and they are tough!! Require a lot of suspended food which then dirties your water and usually stresses your other corals. Probably not the best choice for a nano.

Your choice of crushed coral is something that has been debated many times. Live sand or bare-bottom tends to be what most people lean to for the different benefits they provide. Be cautious of your live-stock with the bottom you have as some fish will need more of a sandy bottom.

Hopefully I've been of some help. There are a lot of people on here with twice my knowledge and I'm sure they will chip in with some recommendations for you.