I need a skimmer. The stuff that floats on top is to much. It drops or
blows in. Mostly small floating items. I have a 1800 gph (way enough)
pump that goes to my outside bio/mech filter. Does anyone have any ideas
since this is a small pond. Can I buy one for a pool? I have no idea how
to set this up. I was hoping not to have to buy another pump besides the
one I have now. 1800 gph is big for this size pond. Thank you

DD DDD wrote:
I need a skimmer. The stuff that floats on top is to much. It drops or
blows in. Mostly small floating items. I have a 1800 gph (way enough)
pump that goes to my outside bio/mech filter. Does anyone have any ideas
since this is a small pond. Can I buy one for a pool? I have no idea how
to set this up. I was hoping not to have to buy another pump besides the
one I have now. 1800 gph is big for this size pond. Thank you


If you want to go cheap don't get the OASE Biosys 200, it's not very
good. It destroyed one of my pumps. The lip that is supposed to float at
water level can get stuck and cause the whole thing to go bouyant which
can put a lot of stress on the front of your pump.. Maybe it doesn't
happen much though since the guy at pondliner.com had never heard of
that happening before. They still replaced the pump though If I were
to do it again I would just get a real one that mounts on the side. I
just use a net though since there's not enough extra liner on my pond to
install one.

On Sun, 8 May 2005 17:14:17 -0500, (DD DDD) wrote:

I need a skimmer. The stuff that floats on top is to much. It drops or
blows in. Mostly small floating items. I have a 1800 gph (way enough)
pump that goes to my outside bio/mech filter. Does anyone have any ideas
since this is a small pond. Can I buy one for a pool? I have no idea how
to set this up. I was hoping not to have to buy another pump besides the
one I have now. 1800 gph is big for this size pond. Thank you

Is the pump in the pond? If so, you can put a side skimmer on and put the
pump inside of that. Course that defeats any real movement of water below
the 2' depth.

The other alternative is put the plumbing in the pond, gravity feed to the
filter and have the pump push it from there to the waterfall (or however
the water returns to the pond). How to set up the filter and plumbing can
be seen at my website: www.jjspond.us click on *My Filter*.

Or, there is a pump skimmer combo you could add to the pond called: Pond
Master Pond Skimmer/Filter System picture below
http://www.aqua-mart.com/show.pl?cmd...s&subcatid=167 You might
want to travel thru the Aqua-mart.com website as it has a bunch of
different brands of skimmers besides the one above. Let me know what
eventually works for you. Feedback is a very good thing. ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
www.jjspond.us

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

Hi, If I put the side skimmer with the pump inside, how does that work
for changes in water depth? What if the water level goes up or down a
inch or so.? I like this Idea. So if I take my pump and put it inside a
skimmer than that would be good. My pond is only 18 inches deep so no
problem there. I do like this. Now where do I get a side skimmer for a
300 gallon pnd that wont take a huge space. I am using a beckett W1800
gph pump with a outside bio/mech filter. Your Idea sounds very good to
me. Thank you

On Sun, 8 May 2005 22:01:15 -0500, (DD DDD) wrote:

Hi, If I put the side skimmer with the pump inside, how does that work
for changes in water depth? What if the water level goes up or down a
inch or so.? I like this Idea. So if I take my pump and put it inside a
skimmer than that would be good. My pond is only 18 inches deep so no
problem there. I do like this. Now where do I get a side skimmer for a
300 gallon pnd that wont take a huge space. I am using a beckett W1800
gph pump with a outside bio/mech filter. Your Idea sounds very good to
me. Thank you

Check out the skimmers at www.aqua-mart.com find what you like and search
the web for the cheapest price. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

skimmer question.

The simplest skimmer is a plastic box sat on a shelf with either the top of one side cut away or short enough that the entire top sits just below the water line. Suck or pump water from that and you will draw in surface debris. It would be best if you had some way of catching the debris especially if the pump sits in the box. The box also needs to be ballasted to keep it down.
During the build of my pond I used just such a skimmer to keep the surface clear. The photo shows it, the net is the strainer and the left hand side was cut down.
You can probably come up with something more appropriate than my set up but it did work

(DD DDD) wrote in
:

I need a skimmer. The stuff that floats on top is to much. It drops or
blows in. Mostly small floating items. I have a 1800 gph (way enough)
pump that goes to my outside bio/mech filter. Does anyone have any
ideas since this is a small pond. Can I buy one for a pool? I have no
idea how to set this up. I was hoping not to have to buy another pump
besides the one I have now. 1800 gph is big for this size pond. Thank
you


I have a 5 ponds 40g, 50g, 500g, 900g, 1800g. They love to collect
leaves, sugar maple seeds, etc. I was forever skimming my ponds by hand.

My first line of defense is the three streams between ponds. They have a
bed of pea gravel and a few river rocks. The streams act as filters to
catch 'items'. Dirt, fish droppings, algae, etc. This filtering helps
the ponds and is a fine bed for small plants to grow. The river rocks
catch the large items. Every day or two I walk along and clean out the
stuff I don't like in the stream. I leave some as different organic
objects in the streams makes an interesting flow pattern that changes
daily.

Now for the main skimmer.
I made my own for various reasons. I didn't like any of the designs that
are/ was on the market. The prices are way too high for $2 worth of
plastic. I wanted to see if I could make something of my own design.

The main skimmer is installed at the lowest part of the pond system.
When the pond liner was first installed an extra 8' was left attached
for expansion projects. This cut down on having any seams. A channel
was dug out from the pond edge. (1.5' X 7" X 2"). The channel opening
is 1" below the ponds 'ideal' water level. The channel slope is 24 to
1. A bowl shaped basin is dug at the end of the channel (2'round and
3" deep). A drain system is installed starting at the middle of the
round basin running 12 foot underground away from the pond system to a
catch box and pump system. (the 3" pipe has a 48 X 1 slope) Parts
list: 4" round X 8" deep drain catch basin w/ leaf catcher. 3" pvc
pipe 12 ft. long. 1' X 1' 18" sq.catch box. Sprinkler pipe 1.25" X
35'.
The parts for the drainage system are standard from any plumbing /
hardware store.

The last part of this setup is a sump pump. It is installed in the catch
box. The 1.25" underground pipe brings the skimmed water back up to the
upper end of the pond system to be filtered through the two fens.

Any changes in the dimensions shouldn't throw anything off.

I hope I have made all of this clear. This news group doesn't allow
attachments or I would send my design drawings.

One more idea. During the fall I use fruit tree netting attached to two
8' poles. This is laid across the pond tops to catch a large share of
leaves and limbs.