How would I add a skimmer to my pond?

[HARO]

A much-overlooked point, Dr. Case! Dust can also accumulate on the water's surface, making it look less than appealing. Even an undersized skimmer will make a big improvement there.
John

 

[dieselplower]

OK I watched a video on installing a pond skimmer and see I was worried about nothing. The tarp gets sandwiched between the skimmer and the face plate with a layer of silicone in beween the skimmer and the liner to keep it from leaking. I think I can do that. ...

Thanks again everyone.

 

[Lardeelion]

Sorry, I got sucked into life. I thought my post with the attached photo went through 2 weeks ago. Anyway, it handles the small leaves that come down off my honey locust, as well as the most obnoxious seed pods in May. Handled my dogwood blossoms too. I really don't have to clean it out that often. Really pleased, although my pond is wee.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Hi. So I purchased a 950 gph pump with UV bulb on clearance at Home Depot for 75% off. Was basically the cost of a UV bulb so why not right...? Anyway I think I would like to add a skimmer to my pond. Any tips on how I would do this since I dont have any spare liner? If I understand correctly, the pump goes in the skimmer. A prefilter pad could go in the skimmer before the pump. Then the pump pumps the water out to a filter that should be located on the opposite side of the pond. So what do I have to do to keep the water from all leaking out where the water is sucked into the skimmer? Get some new liner and tape/seal it to the existing liner? Thanks for any ideas.

@dieselplower I really like your half barrel bog/filter and am thinking of doing something like this in the future for my pond. Can you help explain to me how to set this up?

thanks!

 

[dieselplower]

@dieselplower I really like your half barrel bog/filter and am thinking of doing something like this in the future for my pond. Can you help explain to me how to set this up?

thanks!

Sure I can... it's just like a mini bog. The water is pumped from the bottom of the pond. The hose goes up and over the top of the half barrel and back down into the bottom of the barrel. I drilled a bunch of holes in it so the water could disperse throughout the bottom of the barrel. By the way, I bought the liner for the barrel at a place called Wadels near my house. It has a lip so the water can "waterfall" out. Had I been more motivated at the time, or, willing to drill a hole in my halfbarrel, I could have sent the hose though the bottom of the barrel and then used a bulkhead to pass it into the liner tub. However, i was lazy, and, did not want to drill a hold in the half barrel. The barrel itself is actually waterproof, it just wouldnt flow water out of it nicely so that's what the liner helps do. one other thing I would recommend is that rather than just drilling holes in the tube and plunking it in the bottom and covering it with rocks, you could take PVC pipe and make a frame that would sit in the bottom of the tub and drill holes in that, so it disburses water evenly throughout the tub. It would also be nice to be able to backflush this thing, since it does collect a lot of poop. After several months, the rocks got plugged up with algae and poop, and the water blasted a channel up through the center, so most of the water was not being filtered anymore at that point. I ended up shoveling all of the rocks out into buckets and a wheelbarrow to clean it. Of course I had to uproot and then replant the plants to do so. So yeah, it looks cool and the plant roots grew like crazy, but it's a pain to maintain.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

thanks for the info diesel

I'm not that good with the DIY stuff (still trying to understand how some of the pond stuff works) If I put an opening for back flushing the filter should it be on the bottom or on the side close to the bottom? (or is it a matter of preference?) And by back flushing I assume I would just open the valve at the bottom and let the water run out until it's clear?

Did you have to add the lip on the barrel so that the water could flow out? I have a half barrel that I'm using right now as a planter. I was hoping maybe I could use it for the pond instead of buying a new one. Not sure what it's made out of but it's not wood.

I really like the look of this little bog filter so I am going to have to get this figured out. At least I have some time with the winter coming soon. I won't start on this until next spring. I just want to try and figure out how I'm doing it.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

@dieselplower Did a little searching around the internet and found this https://www.pondliner.com/p-83-botanica-whiskey-barrel-liner-with-spillway.asp

Would this work?

 

[dieselplower]

Yeah that should work great. Keep in mind the spillway is kinda small so you can't flow a ton of water through it.