How to Build a Koi Pond - Skimmers

Ever seen a Koi pond without a skimmer? Ever seen the Koi?

Yes the two are related! Koi ponds with skimmers have a far greater chance of having their Koi visible for all to see.

Koi ponds attract a lot of rubbish at the best of times. The pond itself produces tons of muck, organic debris and a whole bunch of stuff falls into it or is blown into it as well. Insects, dust, pollen, leaves, the neighbour's overly curious cat, plastic bags from heaven knows where - Koi ponds collect some amazing articles that really, all things considered, one wouldn't want there in the first place. 

Skimmers are an ideal way of trapping all this rubbish on the surface before it sinks and starts to play a role in adding to the already substantial filtration load in a Koi pond.

Skimmers in Koi ponds work best when the water reticulation within the pond has been properly worked out. If you have done a good job of returning water from your filtration system to the pond, the surface debris will naturally tend to be pass, at some stage, the mouth of the skimmer. Ideally in a rectangular pond it makes sense to return water to one end, and to skim the surface at the other.

Water overflows make ideal surface skimmers, if you want to add this as a feature to your pond. Bear in mind though that the pond water level then becomes important and needs to be maintained at a relatively consistent level - or else your filtration system and flow rates will tend to vary somewhat.

A great idea for a skimmer is to have it built into the Koi pond right next to the settlement chamber. That way the skimmer will clean to surface of the pond water right into the settlement chamber, from where all the collected debris can be accumulated and filtered out of the pond system.

Of course, if you have lots of large leaves falling into your pond on a regular basis, more drastic action is required and a conventional pool skimmer under these circumstances works well. It does add to the maintenance of having to clean out the basket but in order to have a clean pond and clear water and less load on your filter system I think it's well worth the effort.