Just read a bunch of articles on the 'system'... they were all pretty dated '98ish. The system sounds like what we call a refugium, perhaps it has evolved to this state now? I'll let some of the saltier folks jump in here.

It would be great if my refuges alone could export enough to maintain the system, just not liekly to happen for us.

Runinning skimmerless is always possible, many do with success and others crash and burn. Depends on your bioload and methods of exporting nutrients, throw in a bit of luck too for good measure. A very light load in a large nutrient poor water column it's possible to do nothing but water changes. That would be and ideal setup, not one that is practical.

Just for example, in the wild there are how many thousands and thousands of gallons of water per animall. Shrink it down dramatically and compare it to maintaining 100 gallons of water to keep one coral. That would be a very empty tank.