Skimmer

[budgenator]

whoever installed this Helix skimmer did a less than quality job.

Since you brought it up,

 

[Mmathis]

Have you done a google search for in-pond skimmers or DIY skimmers? Somewhere I recall seeing an in-pond (meaning that you don't have to cut through the liner to install it) skimmer that you hang over the side, similar to the pool skimmer in your example. I don't know how efficient it would be. I have a floating, Oase skimmer. It does a good job, but will never match a "real" skimmer, LOL!

 

[sissy]

they have lots of floating skimmers even one with it's own pump .

 

[Mmathis]

they have lots of floating skimmers even one with it's own pump .

Mine has a self-contained pump.

 

[sissy]

my neighbor bought one at lowes

 

[budgenator]

Somewhere I recall seeing an in-pond (meaning that you don't have to cut through the liner to install it) skimmer that you hang over the side, similar to the pool skimmer in your example. !

I've got one of those, my wife got it. There seems to be a tendency for clueless sales people to ask her how big our pond is and she says, 10,000 gallons, they hear 1,000 and make recommendations. After cutting out the useless 3/4 fitting and replacing it with a 2 inch shower drain and hooking it up to a 1000 GPH pump it works surprisingly well. I did place it in the north east corner so prevailing winds help it a lot too.

 

[Mmathis]

I've got one of those, my wife got it. There seems to be a tendency for clueless sales people to ask her how big our pond is and she says, 10,000 gallons, they hear 1,000 and make recommendations. After cutting out the useless 3/4 fitting and replacing it with a 2 inch shower drain and hooking it up to a 1000 GPH pump it works surprisingly well. I did place it in the north east corner so prevailing winds help it a lot too.

What brand is it? Do you have any pics?

 

[budgenator]

What brand is it? Do you have any pics?

Now I do, phone didn't want to play nice with my computer, which didn't want to play nice with the forums.
I think it's a Tetra, my Wife bought it from a store going out of business, so I'm not positive.
I've had problems with leaks so I made a wooden frame to place the skimmer out away from the ponds tapered walls and to give me a easy way to adjust height as needed.



On the bottom I cut a bigger opening and put in a 2 inch shower drain, I put a piece of blue matala to stop anything that gets through the strainer basket.



off the elbow on the bottom there is a furnco adater and a 1,000ish Harbor Freight pump removed from it's cage. The output is currently feeding an Oasse Bioclear 5. This is seriously under-sized for my pond, but I'm using it until I get a more appropriate filter system installed.



this skimmer is presently in the North-East corner of the pond and the prevailing winds push everything towards it. I hope to get a larger skimmer for that corner and move this guy to the South-West corner.
Here's a short video of it working.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Now I do, phone didn't want to play nice with my computer, which didn't want to play nice with the forums.
I think it's a Tetra, my Wife bought it from a store going out of business, so I'm not positive.
I've had problems with leaks so I made a wooden frame to place the skimmer out away from the ponds tapered walls and to give me a easy way to adjust height as needed.
View attachment 100952


On the bottom I cut a bigger opening and put in a 2 inch shower drain, I put a piece of blue matala to stop anything that gets through the strainer basket.

View attachment 100953

off the elbow on the bottom there is a furnco adater and a 1,000ish Harbor Freight pump removed from it's cage. The output is currently feeding an Oasse Bioclear 5. This is seriously under-sized for my pond, but I'm using it until I get a more appropriate filter system installed.

View attachment 100958

this skimmer is presently in the North-East corner of the pond and the prevailing winds push everything towards it. I hope to get a larger skimmer for that corner and move this guy to the South-West corner.
Here's a short video of it working.

Are you positive that this is an 'in pond' skimmer. Appears to be the typical configuration of periphery skimmer.

 

[budgenator]

Are you positive that this is an 'in pond' skimmer. Appears to be the typical configuration of periphery skimmer.

Not positive, but it came with nylon web straps and slots for the straps to go through molded into the back so you could fix it to an object on the side of the pond and an external usually has a bezel to hold the liner to the unit and there wasn't one. It's possible the bezel got lost, or the wife didn't grab it, in a going out of business sales it might have been incomplete. It works really good, the 1,000 GPM pump is probably way to big, which makes the depth adjustment touchy, I'll just say I was channeling Tim Taylor and going into "More power" mode on this one.

 

[Mmathis]

Are you positive that this is an 'in pond' skimmer. Appears to be the typical configuration of periphery skimmer.

It is an in-pond skimmer. Tetra makes it. You're suppose to be able to hand it on the side of the pond or [I think] place it on a ledge if you have one that's the proper depth].

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Like I said earlier, Tetra needs to stick to manufacturing fish flakes.

 

[Mmathis]

Like I said earlier, Tetra needs to stick to manufacturing fish flakes.

I read the review on AMAZON, and they were very positive. I have an Oase floating skimmer that does a good job -- but agree that an installed skimmer is the best choice.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I read the review on AMAZON, and they were very positive.

A little off subject, but I found out that Amazon is loathe to accept unfavorable reviews (One of mine was rejected). So you might not be getting the true customer assessment of a product.

As to this Tetra skimmer, I am sure that it works, but it is certainly intrusive aesthetically.

 

[budgenator]

Like I said earlier, Tetra needs to stick to manufacturing fish flakes.

One of the problems I had with it is if the pump gets ahead of the fill rate, the whole thing gets lighter and floats up, which slows the fill even more until your pump cavitates and sounds like a three year old sucking the last drop of chocolate milk through a straw.