Hey All,
Okay, I'm back. I had some ground breaking meetings with several Pond Supply Manufacturers and organizational leaders in the pond industry this week, so thank you for your patience.
First of all, a couple of pictures of your pond, skimmer, waterfall box and floating algae would help us get to the solutions quickly.
Most waterfall boxes are actually biological filters, but without media they can't do their job. What media you use can be an important detail that shouldn't be over looked.
What kind of media you use is the determining factor on how often you will need to clean the filter and more importantly how difficult the cleaning will be.
I would like to know the dimensions of the pond too. Much to often contractors make up exaggerated numbers for homeowners when they are asked how many gallons are in the pond.
I have seen contractors use calculations to determine gallons on the excavation of the pond but when rock, gravel, aquatic plants, fountains, fish, underwater lighting, plumbing, etc get added to the equation the true gallons in the pond can be cut in half.
Unless the contractor used a meter on the hose when filling your pond the approximated gallons could be WAY OFF. With pond salt and a quality hydrometer (salt level measuring tool for water) I can show you how to figure out how many gallons are in your pond without draining the thing and starting over.
The placement of the skimmer sounds a little questionable but with out your ponds dimensions or a photo to review I can not be certain.
Certainly a pond in full sun will have the opportunity to grow more algae than a similars sized and filtered pond in shade but make no mistake about it; Ponds in full sun can be wonderfully crystal clear and managed easily if the ponds filtration system is properly designed.
The work that you have to do in your skimmer is directly reflected on the type of filtration you have in your pond. The skimmer is only a PRE-FILTER designed to capture wind blown debris, such as leaves and to house a pump outside of the pond for easy maintenance and replacement. Skimmers are not filters and some contractors still don't have a complete understanding of that.
The Aquasurge Pump is know for it's low energy consumption. Unfortunately, the manufacture asks that you sacrifice the pumps ability to push solids (i.e. algae & pond scum) through the filter. So if you didn't clean you skimmer daily the pump would clog and need servicing.
The answers to your filtration problems lie in the proper pump that can pump ACTUAL solids to a filter, media in your filter to begin with seeings how you haven't any all along and ultimately a pre-filter after the skimmer, but before your waterfall filter that collects fine particulate matter keeping your pond crystal clear!
Send me pictures to my email address if you have any trouble posting them on our board and I will post them for you. Lets get your pond on track so you can kick back and enjoy!
eric@exoticaquatics.org
