Hello,
Dan here. I've been reading/consuming posts here since 2016 when we bought this house with existing pond, but this is my first post. Quick summary: pond is ~1000-1300 gallons, liner, 3 potted water lillies, 1 lotus, about ~20 fish (6 koi, balance goldfish, number fluctuates with procreation and heron predation), Little Giant 2.5K skimmer box containing an older submerged Alpine pump, "bio brushes" --> a small waterfall. This "filter" doesn't really do much beyond collect leaves at the skimmer grate. About a week ago, I drained the pond, scrubbed out the muck and refilled it. We can see the fish again, but I don't care to continue repeating this each spring, which has been the routine.
So... I just bought a used Zakki sieve locally and am about to venture an install with a home-built retro BD --> Zakki --> pump --> S+G --> under water return. The S+G is not built yet though I have a couple of barrels on hand for this.
I am about to order the rest of the bits to plumb this all together and have a couple of questions...
I am considering keeping the skimmer circuit as is and setting up the BD circuit with an external pump (size TBD) I read somewhere (can't find it now) that the Zakki sieve needs a leaf basket. Is this really necessary? I thought the sieve would be a good place to fill for prime, as long as I use a check valve below the water line?
I wonder if down the road I might want to run the skimmer and BD on a single circuit (we get a lot of leaves)... should I consider upsizing the pump a little? Can I even run this skimmer like that?
I am planning to run everything in 2" PVC, I've seen lots of retro BDs on here run 2" on here...
Thoughts?
Thanks in advance
Dan