chuck

I dont see a problem with it. You may experience some bacterial die off during the transfer, but your still ahead by trying to get most of it out of the way while you are building your new stand.

for that matter i might as well build the sump and hook it up also and get the fuge going and put a couple of powerheads in the aquarium for circulation

Just remember the refugium won't have much to feed upon for the plants to thrive, but yes you can get things going now. You can feed the refugium some flake food once or twice a week.

makes sense and will help speed up your cycle..but how long do you you think it will take to get the stand made? if its only going to save a week or two i think it may be more trouble then its worth,
but you go ahead with it, get the sump going too, the more water volume and surface area the better your chance of avoiding a cycle

@ baker.shawn I am looking at easily more than a month I am ordering northern white cedar logs that come off of an island called Coburn Island in Canada

Originally Posted by melev

Just remember the refugium won't have much to feed upon for the plants to thrive, but yes you can get things going now. You can feed the refugium some flake food once or twice a week.

What kind of plants do you put in a sw refugium?

I ran my rock in tubs while I was doing my build and had only a very small cycle that lasted maybe 2 weeks when I adding everything to the dt. I have heard arguments both ways on the fug In my experience with my last build plant didnt fair very well till their was a bio load and im still have trouble due to a low bio load I believe. I cant even grow hair algae.

@ DJ in WV I would use tubs but my 6 y/o son and his friends would end up playing in it and i would loose all my SW and have DEAD ROCK!!!! LOL I don't have a green thumb so not sure what I will get to grow either had to switch to artificial plants in my cichlid tanks

yeha, but cicklids dig all the plants up real or fake