Bog question.

[ashirley]

If you have a bog is it necessary to have a filter pad in the skimmer? We have always had one in ours but I replaced the filter pad and it seems to be creating priming issues with my pump. We pulled the pad and got the pump restarted and so far it's running.

 

[Lisak1]

100% yes. A bog provides biological filtration, a skimmer and filter pads provide mechanical filtration. If you start pushing debris to your bog, it will clog. How fast depends on how much debris and how big your bog is. Plus you don't want debris getting to your pump either or you'll have issues with your pump. It probably has some kind of cage or guard to keep it from pulling in debris, but that will get blocked and you'll have pump issues.

 

[addy1]

It also depends on your water draw, the pump can get clogged up by debris. You need some sort of prefilter. I have no filter before my pump (external) the water draw if from about 1 foot above the bottom. So I do not draw in a lot of debris.