Meh. Putting a lionfish in a reef would rid you of lots of the interesting inverts, IMO.
You can get by fairly cheap in the grand scheme of things if you take your time and plan things out. Buying base rock rather than live, non-live sand, use the leftovers from your old setup (A 45 would make a nice sized refugium
), buying cheap frags from fellow reefers rather than whole colonies at the LFS, etc. I'd say the two most important, as everyone else has said, are a good skimmer and strong lighting. I actually have a POS seaclone skimmer and would upgrade but my refugium seems to be keeping everything clean anyway. With patience you can save a LOT of money.