Have to agree with mcallahan.
Dead rock is the best way to start.
Yes, It takes a bit longer but will save you the stress and headache of trying to remove unwanted critters & pests down the road. Not to mention avoid a lot of the stress of massive die off.
You also have more room for sculpting your rock structures dry. You can drill or bond the rocks together. We use a 2 part epoxy you can order or pick up at any LFS. I then press dry rock chunks & sand into the surface. This helps hide all the joints as well as allow for Coraline to bond later.
You can then add / seed select pieces of live rock to help start the Coraline algae once you get your sand & water settled out.
We have even made several additions since the start.
You can check out pics of our tank to see an example:
http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/11491-new-fish-44-gal/
Good luck.