| Re: Siporax
You can have a combination sump/refugium and many people do. It all depends on how much extra room you have in your sump. Check out melevsreef.com for some examples of how you can set it up.
As for the sand don't bother with the live sand. If you get dry sand it will soon become live. If you can get a cup or so of sand from another reefer or two and that will help seed it. It quickly gather life from the rock regardless.
As to the order of things, the first thing I would do is get the LR and start curing it. While you are doing that you can start removing the marble chips slowly. I would divide it into 5 or 6 portions and take one portion out every couple of weeks. You don't want to send the system into shock. Once the marble is out and the rock is cured, put the live rock in the tank. Then add your new sand. Once that stabilizes start removing the bio-balls a bit at a time. Again you do not want to shock the system. You want to give the bacteria in the rock a chance to catch up after each removal. Then once that is done you can work on converting part of the sump into a fuge or adding a separate fuge.
It is going to take a while but things will go much better if you take it slow. |