Need SERIOUS large pond skimmer brand and purchase advice

Okay, I am working on rebuilding my 3,000 gallon koi pond that "died" last year due to a cheap liner that shredded. I lost about 25 huge koi :( Anyway, the main event in rebuilding is that the pond is directly under a pecan tree of all things, and gets a HUGE amount of leaves, fronds, and debris. A large pond skimmer is a MUST for the rebuild.

The problem is, there must be 1,000,001 sizes, brands, prices, and stores on the internet. I need serious advice on the best place/price to get a large pond skimmer that will run with it's own pump to keep the leaves out of this pond. A tiny one will be ineffective and I have no idea where to begin. The brands, sizes and types are too confusing for me. I found a commercial skimmer that looked like it will do the job, but it was only $4,700.00, hahahahahaha! My budget is more like $300.00 or less. I will appreciate any advice you have to give me! I will now show you before and after pics of my poor pondie........

after.........

Savio. My pond is 2500 gal. I've had the savio skimmer filter and waterfall filter for 7 yrs. I also use a Savio pump. The pond holds 11 koi, 6 of which are 24" or longer. I've had two of my koi for the whole 7 years. I bought my Savio stuff locally. The link below is for info only.

http://www.123ponds.com/skimmers-savio---skimmerfilters.html?gclid=CNClxeyhyJQCFQbJsgod33svlA

I'm sorry. I didn't see your budget constraints and didn't realize how much this stuff has gone up in costs. It's awful!



This message was edited Jul 17, 2008 9:21 PM

Thanks Snapple! I might be tempted to just save my money and buy this next spring. Do you have to buy the pump seperate at this price?

Thanks for the link Snapple. I really want a large pond but have been scared to death regarding budgeting for it. I have to worry about those boring thing like electricity and groceries. Is this the best online source you have found? If so I can go shopping and figure out the total cost. Then I can see about setting so much aside each month and perhaps build in a year or two. Of course it will have gone up by then, but I will have a good start on meeting the costs without going without food for a month. :^)

Ditto on the Savio Skimmer.

We put ours in last fall after the pond had been installed. Looks like it's been there right along (I dont' have a photo onhand - I'm at work). Our skimmer handles a 5000gallon pond and the pump is an EasyPro contractor's choice - which tends to be a little pricier, however the wattage is much lower than what we had with pondmaster.

My understanding on the Savio skimmers is they are supposed to be the 'cadillac' of skimmers. We picked ours up at the local pond store, but waited until the end of September before we bought it. Because the owner of the store wanted to sell it as opposed to carry it on his inventory into the following year, we were given a $100 rake off.

You may want to consider some of the 'end of the year' sales as they will be coming in the next couple of months. We picked up a Tetra UV light the same way - in a September sale and again, paid considerably less than the original retail price.

DarkMoon - if you stutterstep by a 6 weeks or so, you maybe able to save yourself quite a bit of money.

Carolyn




This message was edited Jul 18, 2008 10:47 AM

Darkmoon, How horrible to lose all of those pretty fish. What a beautiful pond, too. What caused the liner to shred I wonder? Do you know the cause?