Surface skimmers

Surface skimmers on Koi ponds are important. Sometimes they are so important that most of your efforts in maintenance will revolve around them - as in the case where you have a large oak tree standing directly over your Koi pond.

Oak trees drop their leaves in autumn. These leaves are large and they can clog a surface skimmer in seconds.

The problem doesn't necessarily lie with the leaves in the skimmer. The problem arises with the leaves sinking and forming large clumps of rotting debris in the depths of your pond.

If you don't have a surface skimmer you are in serious trouble as your only option is to then net all the leaves manually, and this, trust us, is a daily affair. Or, you can stretch a net over the pond to protect it from falling leaves.

Of course the autumn leaf deluge is not limited to oak trees alone. Smaller leaves can be as big a nuisance.

It is not just autumn that presents a problem. Throughout the year leaves, dust and other debris will get blown into the pond on a daily basis. This makes the use of some form of skimmer, preferably operating 24/7 a useful tool to have.

Of course, your swimming pool has a built in leaf skimmer that can be used - pretty much from the get go with your existing swimming pool pump. This water can re routed into your filtrations system easily enough, but it does make the assumption that you are happy to pay the running costs of the power gobbling swimming pool pump.

Some alternatives are to install a small submersible pump into the skimmer weir, below the leaf basket with a pipe either returning water back to the pond, or to a filtration system.

Also you have the option of installing a separate leaf skimmer. There are a number of different options available - our favourite being the Oase Aquaskim 40 that is attached to it's own submersible pump. This unit does a great job of sucking debris off the surface of the pond and it is easy to access to empty.

Other options include the Oase SwimSkim 25 which is a self powered floating skimmer - all you do it chuck it in the pond and turn it on.

The point to note here is that surface skimming is important and you need to take it into consideration as part of the conversion process.