Well... what type of tank? what type of filtration? What type of lighting? A mini reef is very delicate, not to mention, expensive to maintain. A few soft corals and 2 clowns would most likely be ok in a 10 gallon IF everything is set up and cycle correctly. If you haven't seen them yet, check out NanoCubes, they have small sizes (I think an 8 or 10 gallon) that have built in filtration and lighting. I plan to eventually get the 24 cube and try a mini-reef but I am still researching it... on my 3rd book on the subject. I have a few friends (mainly guys at the fish store! lol) who keep mini reefs and do so with pretty good success. You can set one up tho and if it's set up too fast (too many organisms introduced too quickly) or not cycled enough and do fine then all the sudden the whole system crashes. If you've never kept fish before and really want a salt water tank, I would recommend a fish only tank (no corals), you can keep a clown without an anenome. Another book I just ordered is "setting up a mini-reef" you can get it for $6 at this website:
http://www.booksandbibles.net/petbooks.htm
Good luck and read read read!!
