Decent Skimmer

[AngelaM]

I would like to get a skimmer to help circulate and pick up debris on the surface of the water. Can someone recommend a decent one for a 2,100 gallon pond? Is this going to be a pain to install since my pond is already up and running? Thanks!

 

[Jhn]

I've used Atlantic skimmers in my ponds and have had no issues with them. I would probably go with the one that has a 9" weir, since you have large koi to give you the option to increase circulation. @Meyer Jordan I would wait for his response as pond/water garden installation was his business.

As for retrofitting a skimmer, it isn't too bad. I did that on my first pond years ago. Just need to drain water down and clean the back side of liner well, where it will attach to the face of skimmer box.

 

[mgmine]

I have the Little Giant and I put it in as an after thought a few weeks after I built the pond. The nice part about a bigger skimmer is that you can put your pump in it. If you have a water falls you'll want to install the skimmer far away from it to get good circulation.

 

[Tula]

When my pond was built, it had a skimmer which I later replaced. Putting in a skimmer, does require cutting the liner, to fit it properly. Lots of people do it themselves, but I wasn't confident I could, so hired it done..

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Please refresh us on the size (Gallons) of your pond.

Skimmers can be fairly easily retrofitted to any liner pond.

 

[AngelaM]

Please refresh us on the size (Gallons) of your pond.

Skimmers can be fairly easily retrofitted to any liner pond.

It's 2,100 gallons. It starts out at 1' deep and goes to 4' with a couple ledges for plants. It's 20' long by 10' wide and the waterfall is at the deep end.

 

[Abe]

I have the Oase aquaskim 40 , my pond is only couple month old , about 1200-1500 gallons,
and at first I thought it is absolutely genius in it's simplicity and ease of operation (but very
overpriced in Canada, double the US price, which is also not cheap at US$100).
Anyway i still love the simplicity - and most times it does work great, but it needs modification
and I wish Oase would give a decent instruction manual instead of Ikea style fussy little drawings
that just confuse you. You see I bought it before I had the pond finished , and could dig it right
if only I would so smart and understand that what they draw as gravel stones as a warning
not to get them in the system were actually air-bubbles ... and indeed air in the system is a major
problem as I should dug a slope between skimmer and pump - which I did not, and coupled with
Oase pump (again no instructions) the air bubbles trigger a dry-running switch-off mechanism
and everything go dead. And this is the BMW of pumps ...
Anyway if you do have a sloping line from skimmer to pump - and no bumps at all on the way ,
it would work perfectly.

 

[Jimmy Gibson]

I have the Oase aquaskim 40 , my pond is only couple month old , about 1200-1500 gallons,
and at first I thought it is absolutely genius in it's simplicity and ease of operation (but very
overpriced in Canada, double the US price, which is also not cheap at US$100).
Anyway i still love the simplicity - and most times it does work great, but it needs modification
and I wish Oase would give a decent instruction manual instead of Ikea style fussy little drawings
that just confuse you. You see I bought it before I had the pond finished , and could dig it right
if only I would so smart and understand that what they draw as gravel stones as a warning
not to get them in the system were actually air-bubbles ... and indeed air in the system is a major
problem as I should dug a slope between skimmer and pump - which I did not, and coupled with
Oase pump (again no instructions) the air bubbles trigger a dry-running switch-off mechanism
and everything go dead. And this is the BMW of pumps ...
Anyway if you do have a sloping line from skimmer to pump - and no bumps at all on the way ,
it would work perfectly.

I have a Savio with the 8" opening..... As far as a skimmer and biofilter I think it works great.... But the lid is such a tight fit it's a pain in the rear to put the lid back on, I have trimmed on it but still a pain

 

[AngelaM]

I have the Little Giant and I put it in as an after thought a few weeks after I built the pond. The nice part about a bigger skimmer is that you can put your pump in it. If you have a water falls you'll want to install the skimmer far away from it to get good circulation.

I have a submersed pump.

 

[Tula]

I have a submersed pump.

My submersible pump, is inside my skimmer.

 

[saugeye tom]

My submersible pump, is inside my skimmer.

X2

 

[AngelaM]

My submersible pump, is inside my skimmer.

Really? Don't they do a better job on the bottom of the pond?

 

[saugeye tom]

The pro that helped me said in the box!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Really? Don't they do a better job on the bottom of the pond?

Yes and No, but for a skimmer to properly function at all a pump must be in place within the skimmer module,

 

[Abe]

My set up is a submersible pump at the middle of my long & narrow stream-like pond.
I use 2000 GPH Oase pump because it comes with both inlet & outlet each rigged with 1.5" hose.
Inlet hose runs 20' to the deep end and is connected to the Oase Aquaskim 40 skimmer and all the
water is coming in through the skimmer, none comes through the pump itself (it's adjustable).
The water is pumped through 30' of hose to the waterfall at the opposite , higher end .
To make circulation even more perfect than it was I installed 2 bubble stones to circulate water
from bottom to the surface, and than I start having problems with air in the skimmer, and floating
dirt not getting to the skimmer because the bubbles push it away. That's what happen when you
try to improve a perfect system... Now I run the pump few hours a day mostly for the filtering,
and the bubble stones run all night on a timer.