Where's the skippy filter?

14 years ago

Here are some pics of my skippy filter this year. What I love about it is that it never looks the same two years in a row. I just throw plants in and they take off. The tall spiky grass was growing in my basement over the winter. It looked sick and I was going to throw it out, but I just tossed it into the skippy and viola: instant plant.

In the third pic you can see the extra pond liner I roll up over the top of the stock tank. Last week those darn raccoons rolled it over the opening where the water drains and the skippy overflowed. I woke up to a pond that had lost 1 foot of water. I was late for work cause it took me a while to find the problem because it was pouring rain and I couldn't see where the leak was.

Jenny

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Comments (13)

jane_24
14 years ago
It is beautiful, I don't have a slippery because I don't understand how they work or how to install on by myself. But you do have a GREEN thumb with all the beautiful floating flowers and landscape.
goodkarma_
14 years ago
Wow Jenny I don't think I have ever seen your pond more beautiful as it looks now. The Japanese Maple looks great by the waterfall. Your water is really clear and the Koi look stunning. I am not done gushing yet because I love the way the pond edges are coming along and love the reflections I see in the water. The tall grass with the pink tips reflected in the water is really something. Do I see water clover to the right of your bridge or is it those plants with the yellow flowers? Either way I like the way it raised above the water.

Now about that skippy...... I think your watercress ate it. LOL Isn't watercress amazing? Mike says it will overwinter in our ponds. Great to know. I think all the veggie filtration you inspired has made my pond a total joy this year. My pond maintenance went from an hour a week to about an hour a month- if that.

Jane- have you googled skippy filter? Let us know what you don't understand. Start a thread and I am sure you will get your answers.

Lisa
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Hi Jill, I put in my 60 ga filter cause I wanted more plants. It's a ~2' x 3' x 18" deep stock tank with 4 or 5 bricks on the bottom, then a plastic overhead light grate cut to fit, with a mesh bag of scrubbies spead on top, then 1"-2" rocks on top. Or another grate would work. Water is pumped from the pond into the bottom of it via a hose with a shut off valve in it, and spills out the top thru a hole in the side with an outlet pipe and down a streamlet back to the pond. Keeps my 300ga pond crystal clear, but I have a light fish load and lots of plants. I grew water cress, WH, Parrot Feather, Mexican bluebells, and dwarf papyrus in it. Also Sweet flag and 1 iris. My impatiens were so-so. This photo is from last summer and the tank and plastic streamlet were not yet camoflaged with rocks/plants. The 60 ga is on the right, and I have a 1/2 whiskey barrel filter on the 2nd pond, to the rear. I must admit that I never clean my skippys. Many will disagree with that practice. I live in zone 4 so the filters get shut down for the winter. After running all summer, last fall I stopped the pump, unscrewed the drain plug in the tank, pulled the plants out and flushed and flushed the rocks and scrubbies, letting the water run out. No massive black gunk, etc. Again, I have a light fish load, results may vary! I let it drain and left the plug out for the winter. The whiskey barrel got drained and tipped on its side, rinsed off the scrubbies in their bag and stored them in the garage for the winter. This spring I filled them up and away they go. It will take awhile for it to be warm enough to grow bacteria again. Just my experience, obviously won't work for everyone. Sarah
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Sounds good but the inside of the pipe in the skippy can get pretty gunky with microbes growing on the inside and snails, debris, etc.That will close up a small hole pretty fast. I prefer to keep the larger diameter tubing clear above the water surface. I sometimes clean out the entire pipe using the vertical tube as access.I do this if water starts coming out of the vertical tube which indicates the tubing is blocked. That really cuts down on the force of the flow through the pipes. A fairly soft cleaning sponge attached to a not very stiff wire to push and pull it works well as does a small scrubby or flexible piece of coarse sponge type filter. You are just loosening caked on gunk, not scouring it clean. Someone should have jumped on my comment that the T was installed horizontally. Sorry, I must have been half asleep. The air intake tube is of course perpendicular to the surface of the water which makes it vertical. The whistle that can be so annoying is reduced or eliminated by running 14 to 18 inches of air tubing down through the vertical pipe, downstream, keeping the near end above the level of the pipe opening. Don't let the tubing get sucked entirely down. The near end must be free in the air. Or you can simply place a bamboo stick down the vertical pipe to break up the suction that is causing the whistle.
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Plexiglass is not the material for an outdoor filter. While many aquariums are made from it they are not exposed to the conditions of the outdoors. It would rapidly deteriorate. In addition the view of the inside would not be very attractive. All that yuck in the scrubbies would be on display. The scrubbies could have stayed in the Skippy. Bacterial activity ended when the temperature dropped. The bacteria is definitely dead now. I assume you removed the stopper so snow melt won't be a problem. The yuck you mention might very well have been colonies of the good bacteria. They are not known for their beauty. In the spring I would allow them to dry out after shaking the yuck off and rinsing well. Then just put them back in the filter. New colonies of bacteria will develop soon but if you want to start them up more quickly you can add bacteria from a bottle. Watering tanks like the Rubbermaid tank come as small as 50 gallons. They can take all sorts of weather in stride. The rounded corners avoid 'dead spots'and the whirling water feeds the bacteria very nicely. You can always order new materials on the internet. Sandy
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summergardener
14 years ago
Love the Skippies:) I wouldn't want to pond without one! Jane, you must look this up:) They are truely the best for filtration the natural way:)
koijoyii
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks jane, lisa and summergardner.

Lisa:

Believe it or not the yellow flowers are parrot feather. The new sprouts are yellow. You will notice in the last picture on the left side of the waterfall behind the Japanese maple the parrot's feather has cascaded down the waterfall. It has spread across the pond and is popping up all over the surface. It's growing so fast the koi can't eat it. lol I had just a few sprigs that I grew down the basement last winter and they looked so bad I threw them into the top pond and they just went bananas. I have pennywort growing on the right side of the bridge, but it doesn't get any flowers. The raccoons ate the marsh marigold earlier this spring. I had another raccoon invasion last night and my buddha is on her head. I'm afraid to turn her over, she may be decapitated. I fell asleep and forgot to turn the scarecrow on.

I didn't even notice the grass reflecting in the water until you mentioned it. Would you believe behind that grass is a green cut leaf Japanese maple I planted this spring? Maybe I shouldn't have planted it there. By the way that's the miscanthus you gave me two years ago. It's just beautiful.

Jenny
Linda Hershey
14 years ago
Koijoyii,
I absolutely love your pond. I especially love your red bridge...did you make it or buy it? My hubby wants to add one to our pond. I live near Canton OH. where in ne OHIO do you live. Have you heard of the pond tour that is in the akron area....it was great.
Kitt
koijoyii
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks Kitt:

I bought my bridge on e-bay and painted it red. It's not a weight bearing bridge so its only for decoration. It covers the plumbing for my bottom drain and is an optical illusion because it makes my settlement pond and the large pond look like one pond. I am in west Cleveland. I never heard about the pond tour, but sounds like something I would be interested in.

Jenny
clarke
14 years ago
Jenny, your pond looks great!! Here is a picture of my skippy.

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annedickinson
14 years ago
Thanks for that picture, Clarke. I have been toying around with ideas of how to hide a skippy and I like yours. gives me a direction in which to go.

Anne
koijoyii
Original Author
14 years ago
OMG Clarke:

Aren't skippys wonderful? Your wh are so big.

Your pond is gorgeous. Your water is so clear, and your fish are beautiful. I just love how the bubbles float on the surface of your crystal clear water. What is that plant to the right of your waterfall with the pink flowers? Is it planted in the waterfall?

Jenny
clarke
14 years ago
Thanks for the kind words, Jenny. This is the best my WH have done in the five years I've had a pond. The flowers to the sides of the water fall are impatience. I think they are a new color(kind of a light peach color), as I have not seen them in many garden centers. They are planted bare root in between the rocks where the water trickles down.
Holly DeVito
14 years ago
Beautiful pond!

How do you keep the roots of the plant from clogging the skippy where the waterfall goes out?
clarke
14 years ago
Inside the filter there is a stack of Matala filter mat covered with some leftover rocks that form a half moon around the waterfall openings. I had originally put this in last year as some place for bird to stand while they took a drink, but it works well to keep the plants from clogging the outlets.
Holly DeVito
14 years ago
Thanks! I'm gonna try it!

Where's the skippy filter?

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