I feel you on tanks/stands that are narrow. My first tank was a 55g of some non-standard dimensions (the previous owner described it as a "55 wide"), and it resulted in a stand with not a lot of room to work in. I seem to recall it only had a single door that wasn't very big either. I was forever fighting to do anything under there too.
Sorry to hear about losing the coral colony, that really sucks, and is a good reminder to increase light intensity gradually, especially if you've just upgraded or added a new one - I accidentally nuked my green water culture just the other day thinking I'd give it some light while it was cloudy using my K7 mini. It did seem a bit bright in the jar, but, "algae loves sunlight, right?!" Alas, it does not love sunlight through a magnifying glass, which is what I may as well have been doing at that point.