How to stop the carnage? :(

[ashirley]

I had this problem too. Its depressing to lose healthy fish and frogs. I cut a small piece of deer fencing and tucked it inside of the skimmer intake. Its working so far.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I'll continue the plant discussion and collection process here:https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/pond-in-the-foothills.10656/

I had a closer look at the fit of the basket, and it only seems to be an issue on the lower corners, maybe a 3/4 inch gap at the lower corners.
I think what I'm going to do is use a lower flow pump, either internal or external. I didn't have much of an issue when I used an external pump with this intake adapter that I built:




View attachment 90574

Careful not to reduce you turnover rate too much.

 

[MitchM]

I think I may have improved the situation a little bit.
I dug up the skimmer today and dropped it down about 3 inches.
One problem may have been that the berm I built up around the pond had settled and reduced my pond water level which caused a higher water velocity entering the skimmer.
Fingers crossed.
Digging isn't as much fun as I remember.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Little Giant skimmers should have a water level mark on the faceplate. Water levels should not be maintained below this mark.
I am assuming that this is the SK5 model/ Since this model will accommodate up to 5000 gph.Your pump is not too large.

 

[MitchM]

You're right, the water level had dropped below the mark on the skimmer.
I attribute this to the berm material settling.

 

[woodyfitz]

As most of you know, I have a pretty basic pond - a 6000g hole in the ground with a liner.
My weather is too cold for typical marginal pond plants to survive in a wetlands filtration setup.
What I'm using for filtration is a Little Giant Skimmer unit with about 4200 gph flowing through it.

I'm getting tired and frustrated with pulling the remnants of perfectly healthy fish, frogs, beetles and dragonfly nymphs out of the pump intake.
This is not what i wanted when I set up my pond in 2012.

Is there any less violent pond setup designs that you folks can suggest so I can possibly redesign my pond to be less hazardous to aquatic life?

Hi Mitch, curious to hear if you solved this issue. I have a new pond and can't keep all the wildlife out of the skimmer (including the aquatic insects, zooplankton, etc. which are the bottom of the food chain and thus important to the ecology of the whole system). Many thanks, Woody ((e-mail address removed))

 

[j.w]

and welcome @woodyfitz