Setting up sump/refugium questions

[inawe]

My new lfs in town encouraged me to set up a sump/fuge for my 37g tank as I wanted to get rid of my Eclipse biowheel and has been very helpful in the process

. I do have a question I wanted to get opinions on :help: , though. Because nothing is compatible with the Eclipse hood (nothing will hang on with it without cutting the hood), I bought a glass top with a strip light for it. I had first thought I'd run my biowheel for a while after starting the fuge, but then realized since nothing fits, I can't do this. Is this going to affect things (ie. will my tank recycle?)? I have about 35lbs of LR, 30-40lbs sand, snails, cleaner shrimp, hermits, crabs, and a clown and I don't want to cause problems for them :happyfish .
Also, now that I bought the glass top, I've read posts with concerns on gas/oxygen exchange? I did this because my central heat/air is a heat pump which is totally dry air and I do have quite a bit of evaporation, which I was trying to avoid.
And my last concern...now that winter has finally arrived in the South and my part of Texas is in the midst of it's first ice storm in several years, what do ya'll do in the event of a power outage? Luckily the worst of the ice stayed to the north and west of us, but in light of the extreme weather much of the country has been experiencing this year, I will probably have to deal with this at some point this season. The tank is in the same room with the fireplace, and in the past with a prolonged outage I've been able to keep the living room warm. Is this enough, or is there something else that I need?
Thanks in advance.

 

[sly]

In the event of a power outage you can just cover your tank with a blanket and it will keep its heat probably long enough to endure the outage. If not... then there are battery powered heaters that you can buy or even a gas powered generator. It all depends on how much you want to spend, but a blanket should be enough if the power is only off a couple of hours.
I hear a lot of people giving the "gas exchange" argument but I find it to be mostly irrelevant. Our tanks are not stagnant ponds with no circulation... If you have a skimmer then you are getting plenty of oxygen to your water as long as the skimmer is sized big enough. Taking the glass off won't help much more with gas exchange and can cause salt creep and increased evaporation, plus water can get on your lights if the fish splash it. It will help keep your tank cooler but if your tank stays around 80 or so then you are fine.
Since you already have so much LR, snails and sand, I would bet that your biowheel is hardly doing anything anyway. Those things you listed should provide plenty of bio filtration needed to keep your tank clean as you set up a sump system. The only thing to look out for may be ammonia. Do water tests and if needed do a water change to make sure that your ammonia stays low while the wet/dry is adapting to your new tank.
I agree with your LFS about the sump system. Make sure you get a skimmer... A good sump system will greatly increase the carrying capacity of your tank over a regular biowheel system. This translates into being able to have more fish per gallon and a generally cleaner, less maintenance intensive system.
Make sure that you use a good foam or floss prefilter for the water that goes into your sump. This will provide the basic filtering needed to keep ditrius from collecting on your wet/dry. If you do this then you will not have a problem with nitrates that some other people have reported. Just do regular maintenance to keep the prefilters cleaned out and the sump will pretty much run itself.

 

[inawe]

I appreciate it.