Simply Koi and More Koi

After a visit to a reputable local dealer yesterday I came away wondering whether his advice was correct or not.

The advice was that a skimmer will only work if the pump was between the skimmer and the filter as a gravity feed would not pull down the flap in the skimmes throat therefore not pulling the surface water into the skimmer.

My idea was to convert the bottom of the skimmer to 3 inch and gravity feed a home made easy with a second chamber of fluidised K1. Then pump to a return below the ponds surface.

If I go with the dealers advice can a pump fed filter have a gravity return below the surface and if so what size return. I was intending a pumped 2 inch return.

Cheers Dean.

You can gravity feed a skimmer but you must connect to a large diameter pipe right away. A gravity skimmer would need at least a three inch pipe and perhaps even a four inch pipe fitted directly to the bottom of the skimmer. Don't worry if the exit of the skimmer is only 2" or so, as long as you go to the large diameter directly and keep the smaller diameter place it attaches to down to no more than a couple of inches it will not matter too much.

B.Scott