question about skimmer

[toytika]

I am making my own skimmers and was wondering if anyone would know if I could gravity feed the water back into the pond? And if its possible have you done it and how? Hopefully that's not a totally foolish question! I need two skimmers because of the canopy of trees over the pond but the idea of another pump just seems wasteful both in energy and possible over cycling of my water.

 

[cas]

My pump is in a skimmer which then moves the water up to a water fall that drops into the pond.

 

[Lisak1]

Hmmm... I guess I wonder how you will create the flow to the skimmer? I always imagined that was the purpose of the pump in the skimmer, to pull the water into it. But I guess if you put it opposite your waterfall, the water will flow to it naturally.

OK, now that I've worked all that out in my brain... So you want a skimmer that will just flow back into the pond. Would it work if you had a skimmer open on both top and bottom? The water flows in to the top where you have a basket to catch debris and then just flows through the basket into the bottom which is just open back to the pond. I can see it in my mind, I just don't know if it would work! You're just creating a strainer, essentially. Right? I say "yes" but let's see what smarter people say!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

A Skimmer will not 'Skim' without the suction created by the intake of a suitable sized pump. Therefore, 2 skimmers..= 2 pumps.

 

[addy1]

Or an external pump that is plumbed to draw water from the pond and the skimmer. I have a ball valve to control the amount of draw. Works great

 

[toytika]

@Meyer Jordan What about gravity is that not a good source? I will have to pick my mechanical engineer of a husbands brain, I was hoping not too so I could pretend I'm smart lol! Thanks everyone! @ addy1, I hadn't thought about that I probably could do that and somehow use one of the pumps that I plan on using.

 

[addy1]

I like my external easy to care for, pull for the winter. It works great pulling for the skimmer or the pond or both. I prefer running only one pump. We do have two, but one is just for our 100ft head pressure stream and deck ponds, it only runs on a timer a few times a day. Keeps the stream fresh and the deck ponds fresh.

 

[toytika]

I figured out how to do it (thanks to the brains in my house!) without adding anymore pumps and not having to put it into the skimmer if I don't want to, he also told me because of the layout of my pond I should start with only one skimmer and see how it does, I try to avoid asking him cause most of the time he tells me the better approach to things and I tend to get that "huh what do you know attitude" lol just because I like being independent and figuring it out on my own, or at least be right 1% of the time. Waiting on my new liner to come, yesterday I spent searching for one of my chickens and the ducks, the ducks dug under the shed that's next to the run and escaped with one of my chickens, needless to say I didn't find them and I doubt I will, so yesterday I didn't get much done cause I was kicking myself for not putting some hardware cloth down before we added the ducks.

 

[addy1]

I just have one skimmer. When I laid it out I put the skimmer on the predominant downwind end of the pond and away from the waterfalls. Works great.

 

[Mmathis]

@toytika Sometimes you just have to do what seems best to you! Period! And if it doesn't work, well, you've learned something from it. But you are wise to ask questions and get information from many sources. It's best to learn and understand the "WHY" something works [physics?] and take it from there. Just keep those principles of "WHY" in mind when trying to figure something out, and you'll be fine most of the time. Just be careful of falling into the trap of "doing it my way" just to spite what others' have to say.......

 

[addy1]

You mean us ponders have a do it my way or the high way attitude?

not us!

Every pond is the same as far as they have water in them............. other than that who knows

 

[Meyer Jordan]

In a way, all skimmers are gravity fed. For water to flow into a skimmer the water level in the skimmer must be lowered. When this is done, gravity 'pushes the pond water into the skimmer. The catch is: How do you lower the water level in the skimmer without the aid of a pump. A simple siphon ( if you could make one work) would not create enough water flow into the skimmer to effectively remove and capture any floating debris.
I look forward to seeing your pumpless solution.

 

[Mmathis]

@Meyer Jordan Thanks for that post -- I'd never thought about it like that, but that is basically how a skimmer works.

 

[mgmine]

Depending on your pump you could put a tee (actually a sanitary wye would be better) in the line and connect the hose to both skimmers. Hook up a valve on both lines to balance the amount of water that each one used.