Started a fuge

This past week I finally got the courage to attempt breaking the divider in my wet/dry filter box without cracking the box itself. I was successful and started my refugium. In addition to the bag of sand i bought, I also got about 3 lbs of sand from LFS that supposedly had some critters in it. I know they are small but I have yet to see any evidence of them. Its been a little less than a week.
How long should it take until I start seeing some activity?
And after said time, should I consider buying a culture of pods or get more sand from LFS?
Finally I am running a 6500k light in the fuge and have noticed some water loss which I am hoping is just from evaporation, Is this common?

Thanks in advance

 

I mean its hard to say when. because those critters may be too small for you to see. lol. o would get some pods. I mean thats why we make fuges is to have those thrive so yea do that...

Evaporation is common, actually it happens weather we like it or not. Your going to need to top off the fuge with rodi water. If not, your salinity will rise on you.

Im assuming this is a fuge to an existing tank correct?

 

Yah the fuge is for an existing tank. I had planned on getting a culture of pods but LFS suggested trying the sand first. If I dont see any little white spots on the side of the fuge within the next couple days, I'm planning on getting a culture.

 

Let it be for a while dont rush it. You may do more harm than good throwing stuff in there cuz you dont "see" stuff. As long as there is a deep sand bed, macro algae, and get some pods... things will start thriving but give it some time man, we cant replicate nature in a few days it may take years for you to "see" these things... just relax...

 

Evap is completely normal. I would make sure you don't have leak though just to make sure. It is common to add more then one top of pods to the fuge. It wont hurt anything at all. Try putting some Chaeto in there as well.