How to remove surface pollen, dust, etc

[MoonShadows]

I have a lot of pollen, dust and real small particles floating on the surface of my pond, and I imagine throughout the water...mostly from the trees opening up. There are no trees within 50 feet of my pond, but it is surrounded on 3 sides by woods. The water is generally clear... I can see to the bottom with no problem, but I don't like all this fine stuff. I use a manual pool hand skimmer when necessary to remove any large floating items, but it does not remove the fine stuff.

My pond is only about 6' x 6' so I don't want to put in anything that will make the surface viewing smaller on a permanent basis, however I was looking at a floating surface skimmer that I can use "as needed", but I don't think it will pick up this small stuff, will it? Or, will this small stuff eventually submerge and be picked up in my filter...and I should just wait Spring out...I have a Lifegard All-in-One Submersible Pond Filter System. Thanks for any insight.

 

[Mmathis]

Do you have a skimmer? That's what they are designed to do. I don't have a skimmer built into my pond, but do have a floating skimmer: an Oase Swimskim (think that's what it's called). Of course, it's not as efficient as a built in one, but does a decent job of trapping pollen and small surface debris.

 

[Nanner]

I have the same issue tons of pollen and little stuff getting blown in with this crazy Midwest wind we have been getting.. i have a small 300 gallon pond no skimmer...what I have been doing of late...for me I'm lucky I have a small eddy that forms where most of this gets caught... I then use the standard flower watering pitcher place it in the pond where the opening is just below the water and it created a vacuum and sucks that stuff into my water pitcher. I then just water my flowers or veggies with it. I either let rain top the pond back off or occasially top off with hose (well water ). Creates a mini water change as well.

 

[MoonShadows]

@Mmathis That's great to hear. I have been looking at a couple of floating skimmers, Oase Swimskim being one of them, but I thought they were just for larger debris, not things like pollen and the real small stuff.

@Nanner My pond is a hexagon, so there is no one spot where this stuff collects...unfortunately.

 

[Nanner]

Mine pond is round ...I created the eddy spot (not on purpose) using a planter. I guess I did create on purpose cause I wanted a slack area and hiding spots for my fish I just found another benefit with it... So that's always might be an option depending on you water circulation.

 

[Mmathis]

@MoonShadows [can't see your name without singing the song.....Cat Stevens!] Before I ended up with the Oase, I had another brand -- I don't remember what it was called, but it's the only other one you see when you look up floating skimmers. I used that one for about a year and I hated it. I don't remember what I didn't like about it, but I know it was a headache. In addition to the Swimskim, Oase also makes another kind that's like a cup, anchored to the ground. There are other versions of that one, as well, but they have to be connected through a pump.

As far as what the skimmer will pick up..... This type of skimmer actually does better with smaller surface debris than it does with leaves. It's great for skimming pollen! And what's amazing is that when you clean the pad, there is all kinds of gunk that it's picked up!

 

[MoonShadows]

I am going to look closer at the Oase. What I did today was to turn off the filter and the aeration for about a half hour so the surface was calm. Then, I put a hose running very slowly for about a half hour and let the pond slowly overflow (there is one corner that is slightly lower than the rest of the pond...maybe by a half inch...and I put the hose in the opposite corner) . It cleared out about 75% of the pollen and tiny dust floating on top.

 

[Mmathis]

I am going to look closer at the Oase. What I did today was to turn off the filter and the aeration for about a half hour so the surface was calm. Then, I put a hose running very slowly for about a half hour and let the pond slowly overflow (there is one corner that is slightly lower than the rest of the pond...maybe by a half inch...and I put the hose in the opposite corner) . It cleared out about 75% of the pollen and tiny dust floating on top.

Here are a few pics I just took. You can see the surface stuff that's collected in the skimmer, yet the water surface doesn't look that bad. I just cleaned the pad, otherwise I would have taken a picture of that, as well. It was pretty dirty after only a couple of days.