To skim or not to skim ?

Sounds like yours is producing way more than mine. Is keep it. I have also been wondering about putting it on a timer. Mine only produces a little after feeding time.

 

It's working on my 20. Just not as good as on the 55. Less volume does make sense though. I ran the cup out last night before bed and this is what it's doing this morning.

 

A tank on the 2nd floor is no problem. Joists aren't held up by just nails. They are always on a ledger or sit directly on the wall below. For a tank to fall through the joists themselves would have to fail. It would take a lot more then a large aquarium to do that. The exception would be a house that was built prior to the 40s or so. I've seen some crazy stuff in older houses.

 

25 years ago not many ppl ran skimmers, but we didn't use the Berlin method (skimmer and live rock) we used the Jaubert method (plenum under substrate and less rock) Worked great, still does... With a slightly deeper nano so you could setup like this it would work a treat. Probably deals with nitrate more efficiently also.