Better Substitute for a Skimmer Net?

[Koily]

Hey guys,

So my 600 gallon pond frequently gets littered with leaves and twigs from trees and bushes that surround my pond, which gets a tad annoying because every few days I end up skimming the pond surface with a fish net to clear it up. I'm kind of a neat freak with my pond and get bothered whenever the surface is dirty or messy, so this inevitably drives me a bit bonkers.

I did some research and came across a mechanical surface skimmer for ponds...I'm wondering if any of you have experience with these and if you have any advice or recommendations. I figure it might make my life a tad easier since it would do the skimming for me and I wouldn't have to manually clean the pond surface as often.

Here is what I came upon when searching:
http://www.pondplanet.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=162&product_id=607

What do you guys think?

 

[dieselplower]

You can get those for about $50 cheaper on amazon.

 

[HARO]

Skimmers come in many shapes and sizes, some float, some sit on a shelf in the pond, and MOST sit in the soil just outside the pond. All pull a thin sheet of water off the surface of the pond, thereby removing the surface scum from the water. Be wary of small ones, you will spend LOTS of time emptying them!
John

 

[Koily]

Thanks for the input guys. I ordered the oase surface skimmer, being that I've heard good things about oase products and I got this one for $111, which is a pretty solid deal in my opinion. Hopefully I won't be needing to clean out the filter on the skimmer every week, but I suppose that depends on various other factors (wind, weather, other sources of leaves and debris).

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes, I have a really old small skimmer from years ago, it still works well, but when there is lots of stuff falling in pond I do clean it every day!