water questions

About to fill my tank & fuge to start "cycle"
No sand, no rock, just equipment..
Not adding salt yet either..

50gal corner display
10gal fuge



Ok questions:
is there a time limit on water to reef
(Staying fresh, etc..)

What should my flow in the refugium be??

I'm running duel hob overflows made of half inch pvc.. from the info on the youtube video I watched to make them, I should get 90gph from one.. I might make the jump to 1" pvc for 375gph, but don't want to have the fuge flow too high

I'm not too sure when I will add salt, live rock, & live sand, but i want to make sure all the mechanicals are up to par..
Thanks!!

Fill your system to test it but if you cycle it you will just have a freshwater tank and you will need to re cycle once you add live rock and sand and adding sand to a tank full of water almost always causes a huge sand storm. You want 10x the tank volume for turnover in a sump in a refugium you want slower flow but I'm not running one so I'm not sure what would be too much.

I realize I would have to cycle after the rock & sand..
I would rather not fill, drain, repeat, just to test systems.. that's why I was wondering if I could leave the water in, observe the temp, and run the system, like a stress test of a week or two, then add my rock/sand.. and then cycle again before critters..

And also remember when you add your water you should first add maybe 2/3 full. The rock and sand later on will take up a lot of volume.
I'm sure leaving the water in will be fine as long as it's not going to stay stagnant.

Awesome..
My only remaining question would be as far as salinity is concerned..
I plan to fill it completely, when I'm ready for rock & sand prep my salinity, wait for a day or two..

Take out a few gallons add my rock & sand..

Then check salinity again before I readd the water I removed until topped off (adjust added salt water, and regular RO water) just incase the sand and rock change the salinity..

It sounds right in my head, but research, plan, research some more, phone a friend, and get an audience opinion before moving on.. ;)

When your ready to add the LR and sand.....
1 drain all the water from the system in to a few containers and add salt and power heads.

2 start adding your rockscape, when your happy with it add the rinsed sand to the tank

3 (this is the important part) take a plastic bag that the sand came in and cut it so when it's unfolded it covers the bulk of the sand bed. Using a small pump, pump the water into the tank in the center of the plastic sheet. As the tank fills the sheet will float up but keep your water pumping into it. This will deaden the turbulence and reduce any sand storm you my get.

Nice with the bag idea, I was already thinking that far ahead as well..

Also mocked up a tank topper.. its in its own thread..

https://www.livingreefs.com/threads/fresh-50gal-corner-to-reef.49557/#post-662785