Tula's pond skimmer aggravations!

[Tula]

Well, kind of pulling my hair out a bit! Hired pond guy to remove my gravel, clean pond and re-home all but my five koi. All went well, bill presented was what he quoted. Realize without the gravel, I should get both my pumps into the skimmer ( long story as to why they weren't both in there in the first place) so I get a little more filtering.

Pond guy tells me he'll put it in @ $65 per hour and it will take 3-4 hours, if I buy the skimmer. I buy a Savio ( which I later learn from someone on Koiphen, I over paid for) , a Cadillac for my Chevy pond, but it was in stock at the fish hatchery. I'm at work and hubby is home while the work is being done. Pond guy and assistant take many breaks for "parts", they leave together and are gone 45 - 60 minutes each time. I arrive home from school and see he's removed the pre-filter from my 950 Pondmaster to fit it in the skimmer with the water fall canister pump. I reminded him, he was to elbow it and stand it on it's end, WITH the pre-filter on it.

He finishes the job and presents us a bill for $641.47. I was flabbergasted, but it was getting dark, I was exhausted and just wanted him to leave - so I paid him. Hubby and I agree we can't "unring the bell" and are glad the work is done and we have a skimmer of a life time LOL A few days later, I go to pull the leave basket out and notice the pond guy, plumbed the 950 line ACROSS the top of the bracket holding the media filter UNBELIEVABLE! Hubby says he doesn't want pond guy to return , he'll fix it himself. I couldn't resist shooting the pond guy and e-mail....no response

Today hubby fixes the 950 line and we are thrilled we can now lift the filter bracket out of the skimmer easily Problem? ......you know it's coming.......now the skimmer lid will NOT fit back onto the skimmer Urgh!!!!

Oh well.....tomorrow is another day!

 

[JohnHuff]

I totally sympathize with you. When I first moved into my house, I hired a pond guy to clean my pond once a year. The first time, it was ok. He vacuumed the pond and gave everything a hosing. The damage was about $175. The second time he came, he charged $150/hr and charged me about $350. It was at that time that I started learning to deal with the pond myself. The internet has been a Godsend. The first two times, forums were still in its infancy and there was very little information to be found. Of course, now my pond has been voted best pond in the neighborhood.

Back to your situation, if you're not able to fit the skimmer lid back on, I'm sure we will be able to help you somehow.

 

[Tula]

Thank you. It seems obvious to me ( but I could be wrong!) that something is pressing on the skimmer......dirt, water pressure? I think we'll have to excavate around it tomorrow. I'm concerned as when the pond was built 6 years ago, the original pond guy put quite a bit of sand behind the skimmer......which, of course, slid down behind the liner When we had this job done, we had him remove the sand , lift and tighten the liner.

We've learned a lot over the last six years of ponding. I wish we'd done the skimmer install ourselves. We replaced out pool filter this summer and ran all new electric and re plumbed it....but were concerned about the skimmer install, as we didn't want to harm the fish, if we screwed up. I can post pics tomorrow. Kim

 

[fishin4cars]

I had a issue with my savior and the lid when I was using it, In order for the lid to fit correctly it must be filled with water first then the sand backfilled around it. During this process the lid must be on during the backfilling. The Instructions clearly state this but I missed it when I installed mine. I had to dig it out and reinstall correctly to fix the issue, luckily I didn't have to unattach the liner or the plumbing to do this as I had enough fles for everything to go back like it was suppose to.

 

[Tula]

Oh gosh, I hope we don't have to take it out after we paid all this money to get it installed It is filled with water, but hubby did dig around it to re plumb the lines. Thank you for this information......will look into this today Kim