advice on size of 2nd pump

[Mohawk]

Pond is approx 4200 gal. Currently I have bottom drain feeding a sequence pump to skippy filter to water fall.

That part is working well and turning water over almost once per hour.

My question is what size pump would you recommend for my skimmer. I have a savio skimmer not yet operating but want to

get it going to clean up the leaves. I am concerned about too slow or too fast flow thru this. I will probably just run this flow back into

the pond or possibly a second skippy filter at ground level. Head height would be very minimal.

any thoughts?

 

[taherrmann4]

I have a sequence 7200 running through my savio skimmer and it can be a bit much if the skimmer starts to fill up with leaves, otherwise it works. You could always do part from the skimmer and the other part from a bottom drain. Put on some ball valves so you can control how much it is sucking from what.

 

[addy1]

I put ball valves on the input from the bottom of the pond and the input of the skimmer, both go to one pump (sequence). When stuff is dropping I have the skimmer pulling more than the bottom input then change it once stuff quits dropping. Works great.

 

[DoDad]

I have a savio skimmer on both of my ponds.
On one pond the skimmer has a 8" face plate .the plumbing goes to a Sequence onto a bead filter onto the waterfall or winter bypass.
The other skimmer has a with a 16" faceplate and has 4" PVC through the bottom to a cetus sieve and onto the waterfall or winter bypass.

 

[DoDad]

The one with a 16" faceplate has a 1/4 hp Cascade Pro pump on it.

 

[fishin4cars]

be sure and check the flow rate for the skimmer you have, if it's a compact 2500 gph is about the max flow rate for it to run comfortably, anything larger and you'll start having issues like what Tmann is talking about, I have a 3000 gph in my compact and have to restrict the flow rate some so it doesn't constantly suck air. I'm not sure what the full size savio skimmer GPH rating is. I will sat with 4200 gallons even if you have a turn overv rate of 2 times per hour it won't bother the fish at all, they love the water movement and it can be very beneficial to the bio filters.

 

[Mohawk]

Thanks to all. I don't have the compact skimmer I have the full size with the 8.5 faceplate which recommends 4200 to 5000 gph range. I assume I can go slightly less than this if I do infact
use it as a second pump. I don't feel like adding the ball valves at this time and only using one pump because it is already working well and I want to leave the option for next summer to possibly
route this into another bio filter if needed. I am leaning toward a 3000 to 4000 gph pump in the skimmer as of now.

Thanks

 

[fishin4cars]

as a secondary pump/filter combo i would think your right in the right range. I wouldn't go any higher than the 4000, this will help elimenate the use of ball valves and should be able to work very effeciently without making all those annoying slurping sounds