|
Of all the issues I encountered while building this project, the skimmer was the most problematic issue of all. I was following the plans left behind by Joe B. Decker that I found in Helen Nash’s “The Complete Pond Builder”. “Sure”, I said, “I can do that”. I needed a heavy duty 30 gallon plastic trash can, some silicone sealer, etc., etc. It seemed like it was going to be a cinch. It was. Construction was a breeze. I had it done in about an hour. Little did I know that it would be the source of countless hours of fiddling around, trying to make something work that couldn’t.
The problem was that the trash can had to withstand the pressure of several thousand gallons of water. It wasn’t up to the task. It deformed, busted the silicone sealant and leaked like a sieve. After using tubes and tubes of sealant and marine glues of all kinds, I finally gave up, drained the pond down halfway, ripped it out and installed a Pond Sweep skimmer (PS701F) which works like a charm. By doing so, I ended up disconnecting the overflow that I had carefully constructed to deal with groundwater run-off overfill. I’ve read that for a pond of its size, that overflow is not a big problem. We’ll see.
|
