Re: Sand bed ---> bare bottom
Clayton,
Unless your rock is already sitting on the bottom of the tank with the sandbed added later, siphoning out the sandbed, either a bit at a time or all at once, will cause your rock to shift and probably topple in some places.
I would go the extra mile and tear down the tank (removing as much tank water as you can), remove the sandbed, clean where the sandbed may have left algae on the glass, then put it all back together. Have lots of new salt water on hand to help refill the tank. I know this is the PITA way of doing it, but I think you will be more satisfied with the result.
Once you do have your tank BB, make sure you siphon out the crud that accumulates on the tank bottom and thoroughly clean any foam or poly filters you may be using during water changes, otherwise you're going to be back where you started in terms of excess nutrients fueling the growth of unwanted algae.
I would also suggest having some sort of macroalgae in the tank to utilize the nutrients so nuisance algae is less of a problem.
A 29g is a relatively small tank, imo. Too large of a bioload (ie, too many fish, or having leftover food in the tank) might be the reason you have so much algae. In my 37g, I only have a pair of ocellaris clowns and a pair of cleaner shrimp.
Am wondering how many fish you have in the tank and how often you do water changes and other maintenance.
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