Is there such a thing as too small for a reef?

Thanks
From the limited info I collected so far, having a sump sounds like an absolute must.

 

as far as "active" corals go, my favorites are my duncans. They have an awesome feeding response, and when they are fully opened they react to the water movement well too. I think that frogspawn, torches, hammers etc also add a lot of movement coral wise, and torches look similar to anemones too. Sun corals have a great feeding response too, and might do well with the tunicates

 

I didn't even think about duncans, I have one in my biocube and your right, they are awesome! Mine only had one head for a long time until I started spot feeding it, now it's a monster.

 

BTW, what is the relation between a refugium and protein skimming? Do you need both, or does a refugium eliminate the need for the latter? Or do you need a skimmer in order to get to the point where the refugium eliminates the need for it?

 

Most, including me, use both. Most setups now try to have "raw" water go to both the skimmer section and the 'fuge with the return pump in the middle. This is how I just setup my 125.

On the other hand, there are certainly plenty who have been successful without a skimmer. So both are certainly not necessary, however I think it is the way to go personally.

 

While a sump, skimmer, and fuge all provide advantages, they are not an absolute necessity. I've had many tanks that had none of them, including my current 29g. If you keep your bio-load light, routine manual maintenance will most certainly suffice.

 

My thought was, though I definitely need to study up on the biology of it, that the refuge is supposed to - besides being a bed for bacteria doing biofiltration - grow zooplankton that "eats" whatever muck and various microscopic nutrients may be floating around, and provides constant live food for filter feeders.
Wouldn't using a skimmer mean that we're removing the food for the stuff that grows in the refuge?

 

A skimmer removes proteins aka DOC.

The micro bubble's surface tension attracts the proteins that are then carried away on the surface of the micro bubbles to the skim cup.

Skimmers may remove some organics that might benefit corals but not to such a degree having a skimmer is a disadvantage. You can always provide other types of nutrition.

With all that said running a skimmer on a nano tank is debatable. You can probably achieve sufficient water quality through routine water changes, decreased bioloads and reduction of introduction of nutrients through over feeding.

 

Okay I think after some extensive research I kind of decided on what I want to start out with. The whole filter feeder / NPS story seems super complicated, and due to time and space issues, I'd like to wait with it until I have enough experience, and a garage for a 200 gallon sump / fuge.
Right now my goal is a super-nano (single digit gallon) setup with zoanthids and palys only, and some appropriate cleaner inverts, no fish. I'm currently reading the Nano reef handbook by Chris Brightwell, and web articles on supernano setups.
Did anyone here create such a tank? Any suggestions, things to look out for? I'm pretty sure I'll have to do frequent water changes and top-ups, maybe in an automated fashion due to the small water volume... Does a refuge with macroalgae and pods make sense in such a small system? (Zoas and palys do eat pods, right?)

 

there are a couple of members that I know had a 4 gallon and another an 8 gallon nano. Let me see if I can find who they are......

well, one is an older thread - 4gallon homyg30 and tgood (who is on here quite a lot) has an 8 gallon. You may want to ask them some questions.....