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Ponds & Aquatic Plants

pond skimmer for a really really big pond

whte_mountian_witch

16 years ago

Were building a house with a little valley behind it and a wet weather stream in the bottom. We plan on daming the stream at one end and scraping out the shape of the pond in the dry season (next year) and creating a pond with 1200 square feet of surface area. I'm going to cover the bottom with about 6 inches of sand because we plan to swim in this thing and I don't want to be stepping in mud.

We get really amazing water from that stream. Any water running through mountain streams here is clear and loaded with iron (it runs over sandstone thats full of iron, if you break open a piece you can see little iron specs in it, its kind of cool.

We live on a mountain side with lots and lots of trees and I want to install enough surface skimmers to keep the bottom of the pond clean of leaves. Do they make one big enough to accomplish this.

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Comments (6)

gorillabuilder
16 years ago
You'll never be able to keep it clean. Even well-run pools get leaves and muck and have to be vacumed. Leaves float and sink. And with the sand bottom you'll have to put scuba gear on because a vacuum will just suck up your sand and leaves.
Skimmers work with suction. meaning you'd have to have a large pump... huge one.. with multiple pipings and multiple skimmers and the water will have to be blasted back in from the pump which could get the sand oscillating a bit and fogging up the water. Not to mention wildlife will move into this. You also should treat this sitting water. Don't forget birds might drop in it, animals might drown in it, and the water will eventually just muck up in various ways with various bacteria. I envision a real pain.
Too bad you couldn't tap into the water, let it flow to a concrete basin, and out .That way you can keep it cleaner and controlled.
Instead of letting it flow all the way to the valley, I'd tap into it higher up and let it flow into a concrete basin and I'd let the water keep on flowing and when it flows to an overflow area it will take the top surface with it.. leaves and all. .. and rejoin the stream. That way you always have fresh water, it naturally skims itself and you have a pool that can be cleaned based on leaves that sink, etc.

BUT.. I'm sure there's more ways to accomplish this... that's my 2 cents.
bugsb
16 years ago
This might help you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Swimming ponds
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Yes you can add a skimmer to your existing pond. i'm sure you could get one that connected throught the liner or like i have with my pond. i bought this skimmer and it does a great job. it connects to a pump through one of the holes in the sides or bottom. there is another one right above this one on the same webpage. good luck and never say never. the only negative about it is the way it attaches in the pond. there are two straps at the back that you wrap around a rock or something. it tends to be a little tricky keeping it in a level position. i'm thinking about adding some pvc to the sides to make a holder thing for it. good luck with yours and tell your hubby never say never. lol here is a pic of it in place when i first revied the concrete pond on my property. it is in the lower lefthand corner.
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thankyou. its something i really enjoy doing. when i bought the water hyacinth they were prety good sized and started dying off all the leaves started rotting and i thought they were goners so in an effort to save them i started pulling off al the dead leaves. whenever i saw a leaf browning i pulled it off. they bloomed once so far. and then started putting off baby shoots. im slightly worried about my lotus the caterpillars are getting ahold of them! >:( they are puttinh off aerials here and there and still sending up new leaves so maybe they will recover.
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Looks really beautiful. I have always assumed that fish will take care of mosquito issues. Of course, I don't know anything about zone 3 issues or if it matters. I wonder if your mosquitoes are coming from other sources; you know, gutters, drains, holes? To be honest, I don't see how a skimmer would help with bugs. My pond is similar to yours in size and I never thought that I had room for a skimmer to do any skimming because all the plants would get in the way and so I never made one.
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whte_mountian_witch
Original Author
16 years ago
The swimming ponds link is exactly what I'm looking for. I;'ve seen so many natural bodies of water around here perfect for swimming and even swam in a lot of them. There full of the same beautiful blue green water and you can swim with the frogs and the fishies. I just wish I knew how mother nature does it. I guess I'm just going to have to invest the money and buy that book off of Amazon.
LauraZone5
16 years ago
What state are you in?
prairie_bogger
16 years ago
CBS Sunday Morning did a segment on unique swimming pools last week and they interviewed the guy from Total Habitat-- the link that Bugsb posted above. The ponds on the website look really nice, and there's even one located in Newton, Ks which is close to where I live. I'd love to check it out.

Sherry
whte_mountian_witch
Original Author
16 years ago
I'm in Arkansas by the way

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