New Reef questions

I have had my 40 gallon setup for a few months now (4 ish). In the next few months i hopefully plan to upgrade to deep blues 80 gallon frag tank. I have been reading Geoff's thread "Reefkeeping Made easy" and am getting bombarded with info. In my current tank I have a very shallow sand band (I first had BB but than couldn't stand the look), and used all salwater base rock. Right now i am fighting a smll outbreak of what i at first thought was diatoms but now believe it is something else (I cant think of the name right now, they have small air bubbles all over the alage). For my new tank I have questions. Are sand beds really as bad as BB fans say? Should i go with real reef rock, or dry rock (I fear silicate leaching with dry rock)? Should i Carbon dose for alage control? Any tips I didnt think of would be helpful:)



Specs:

40 gallon deep blue frag tank

PSK 100 skimmer

Filter Floss instead of filter sock

Rubble in fuge chamber

Purigen



Inhabitants:

1small kole tang (I know its tang in a 40 gallon)

1 snowflake clown

1 fire shrimp

blue leg hermits, cerith snail, nassarius snails



Coral:

1 small montipora stetosa

1 small acan

1 small yuma mushroom

3 small zoas