Lot of overzealous reactions in this thread. This whole "you gotta do reefing the way I like to do it" mindset is straight up poison. Makes me want to put fake plants in mine. OP, your lfs is a bunch of filthy liars, most lfs's are. They either have no idea what they are talking about (lying out of ignorance) or are lying just to make a sale. Ive seen people on here splitting hairs about this but a lie is a lie whether or not the person realizes that they arent telling the truth.
But, your tank set up could absolutely work. You are going to run into a period where the tank is super ugly, no way around it. The best approach is to wait it out and let it go away on its own. Theres bottled crap that can help but theres a chance they wind up causing more problems and not fixing the issue. Id encourage you to do a little research on lights, you might find that yours are a little lacking for corals. If you decide to replace them look at t5 bulbs, cheaper than leds, and then youd be able to post threads about your plastic plants and how much better t5's are than leds and really troll these guys.
But, your tank set up could absolutely work. You are going to run into a period where the tank is super ugly, no way around it. The best approach is to wait it out and let it go away on its own. Theres bottled crap that can help but theres a chance they wind up causing more problems and not fixing the issue. Id encourage you to do a little research on lights, you might find that yours are a little lacking for corals. If you decide to replace them look at t5 bulbs, cheaper than leds, and then youd be able to post threads about your plastic plants and how much better t5's are than leds and really troll these guys.