first off, dont get discouraged! you can definately have a nice 10 gallon reef without spending tons of cash! all you have to do is enjoy the hobby and its easy. AND invest in GOOD lights in the beginning (hey if the tank was free...)! realize you can cram it full of corals, but not fish. fish are really dirty in 10 gallons of water. your maroon should be okay. coralkeeper has a nano with a maroon that hosts his xenia. he even has video of this in his diary.
I have three 5-gallon containers that i got at a bass pro shop. i keep r/o and saltwater on hand (in the closet) i have a bucket i use to transport water from the 5's to the tank. the beauty of 10 gallon tanks is that water is affordable. about 50 cents a gallon. i dont have to buy an expensive r/o unit for the house. plus i like to go to the fish store every week (or two weeks is fine) to catch deals on the small corals. the dangerous part is that, yes, i am in the fish store, and must maintain the budget! beer or coral? haha. coral.
for feeding, yeah, i get some water out of the tank with the baster and put it in a cup with a quarter of a cube of frozen mysis. let it melt, then suck up some and squirt it gently at the individual polyps. they will each close on the shrimp and eat it. you will find the balance of water and food. i have noticed that my xenia also benefit without direct feedings, they get tiny particles floating in the water and close up. all the buried sand snails come up and cruise the tank at dinnertime too.
if you have good lights, most corals do fine without feeding them. they eat light you could say. like plants do. im already getting purple coralline algea on old base rock peices. without adding pricey supplements.
the cost of stocking it... i am not able to drop tons of cash on expensive corals all the time. i have been building slowly. i am perfectly satisfied with "beginner" corals like mushrooms, palys, green star polyps, xenia, featherduster, ricordia, to start with. plus they grow and reproduce quickly under metal halide. i usually pick up pieces for 10 or 20 bucks. it gives me time to enjoy each peice i get to add and really think about what i want in there. theres not much space in a 10. i plan to get some frogspawn, and a small torch head next. really want to put a fire/blood shrimp in there too. when stuff starts to outgrow you can frag peices for store credit.
sorry for the long post...
i need to get a full tank shot...
will post for ya.
good lights. topoffs. water changes (to replenish nutrients in the water, not just make it cleaner). and your reef will thrive!
