I have a 1-1/2 inch ball valve closed to just a sliver for the bottom drain.
It is attached through a 1.5 inch T and various adaptors to make it down to
the 1 inch inlet for the pump. There are a few inches of 1.25 inch flex
between the outlet on the valve and the strainer.

The skimmer is also pulling through 1.25 flex, but a distance of perhaps 8
feet and there are other fittings along the way -- I have an intermediate T
that I can use to attach a vacuum hose for cleaning.

I wrapped black electrical tape several times around a couple inches below
the top of the inside pipe on the skimmer. That reduces the area between the
float and the pipe, and thus puts more drag on the float. It also reduces
the rocking back and forth of the float. Result: It is now working
reasonably well. Not a super rush over the lip, but enough to get most of
the small debris into the mouth. Leaves make it in eventually, but tend to
collected around the outside.

Like you, I turn the float upside down and then quickly put it on to dump
all the air out of the top.

When you say open the air holes, do you mean that you made them larger?



"Mickey" wrote in message
...
http://www.mdminc.com/Sequence_750.htm

This is the pump that I have the 4200 version. I am not sure raising the
pump will do any good. You still have to pull water into the skimmer,
while
the bottom drains pushed into the pump by the weight of the water.

How are you turning the water flow down. I was using a valve and just kept
closing until it worked. I was never able to get a satisfactory flow until
I
opened up the air holes in the lid. The other thing that helped was when I
put the top ring on I would push it below the water level on purpose and
try
to purge some of the extra air out. Do you still have your old pump? Can
you
use it for the bottom drain and the new pump for the skimmer?

Something else to think about is how your water return to the pond? You
most
likely are not getting the max rated flow do to any plumbing you have. The
max rated flow is hooked to a water source with nothing connected to the
discharge side to create pressure. Can you measure the actual GPH by
measuring how long it takes to fill up a 5 gallon bucket? Lets take your
pump for example at 3600 GPH or 60 GPM or 1 GPS you should fill a 5
gallon
bucket in 5 seconds.

Let me know how that turns out you might be surprised.


http://www.pondusa.com/pumpssup.htm


"Remydog" wrote in message
news:M2Mkc.4384$_41.216376@attbi_s02...
Mickey,

Would my results change if I raised the pump off the bottom so that it
was
pulling water uphill from the bottom drain? Would that help overcome the
pressure differential?

MSK

"Remydog" wrote in message
news:l%rkc.2967$0H1.305198@attbi_s54...
Thanks. I was thinking about that, also, but worried that I would then
have
the ring totally submerged all the time.

"Mickey" wrote in message
...
A few questions. Water is being pushed out the bottom drain by the
weight
of
the water. You have to create a suction of sorts to get the water to
flow
into the skimmer. That is why you have such an imbalance. I had one
of
these
last year and moved on I did not have the best experience same as
you.
What
you can try doing is making the four air holes at the top of the
floating
ring closer to the top (now you have less trapped air). As you have
said
the
top ring floats and the pump has to pull water over. This worked for
me.

"Remydog" wrote in message
news:sppkc.2780$kh4.176220@attbi_s52...
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