Last year I purchased an OASE no niche Biosys skimmer. I was operating it
from my 1200gph Cal Pump and it barely worked, despite being rated as
operating at 1200.

I just upgraded my pump to a pondmaster 3600. The skimmer works fantasticly
well when hooked up directly to this honker of a pump. It looked like it was
going to pull in all the fish and plants, it was so strong.

However, the moment I split the line to my bottom drain, the skimmer pretty
much stopped. I even shut the bottom drain down to a trickle and the darn
thing still is barely pulling surface water in.

The problem I see is the design. There is too much space between the sleeve
and the float, so the flow of water between the two parts is such that there
is not enough suction to pull the float ring down below the surface. I could
possibly build up the sleeve with duct tape, but what a bother, and who
knows how long that will last in a wet environment.

I've about had it with this thing, and wondered if others had a similar
experience and/or if there is another design of no niche skimmer that works
on much less water draw.

Remydog