Really pleased the wrighty skimmer is fully operational, cracking job mate. You also covered part of my next two upcoming vids which made me smile 😁. Stay safe Terry 👍
Hi Terry great video as usual, always very interesting was very surprised to see me pond on your channel absolutely brilliant thanks for the birthday shout out made my week 👍 Thanks again mate and keep going with the best Chanel on UA-cam
Hi John, thank you, you're very welcome and thank you for your channel support, really appreciated. I love your pond, great job you've done there. You have a great day on the 9th mate, and have a couple for me. Take care and stay safe, Terry.
That new skimmer modifcation is working a treat. It's amazing how much protein is being collected and all without the need for the blue barrel...lol. Great job as always Terry. Cheers.
Hi K R, and thanks mate. The new one is working much better than having that barrel stuck in the middle of my filter house lol. Thanks again mate, take care and stay safe. Terry.
Hi Scott, and thank you mate. I just love a bit of a tinker, as you know lol. It just wants a bit of a tweak here and there and it should work well. Thanks mate and take care, Terry.
Hi Rob, I have to say, thank you for having faith in me. I wasn't sure it would work at one point, but got there in the end. I got up this morning, and the bucket is half full. Really good to see. Hardly any bubbles on the pond now, and I can see a big difference in the water clarity already. Thanks mate, and take care. Terry.
Absolutely cracking set up that Wrighty. I find with my “up pipe” protein skimmer it works at its hardest through the early hours. The color of that discharge reminds me of when I first installed mine, over time you will notice the color won’t be as dark and the water clarity in the pond will be better than you thought possible. Cheers Frank 👍
Hi Frank, and thank you. That's right mate, I did notice with the first protein skimmer I made quite a while back, the colour did drop off as it went on, and like you say, once it's removed most of the protein from the pond it will get weaker. I did also notice a marked improvement in the water clarity. Thanks again mate, very much appreciated, take care, Terry.
Hi Anthony, and thanks mate. Not to worry, my wife's got me tiling the kitchen next lol. Then she'll want it decorating after that, I bet lol, thanks mate, take care, Terry.
Thanks Dave, much appreciated mate. That's a thought on the clear tube, I'll look into it. I can see a difference in the pond water already. Thanks mate and take care, Terry.
Hi mate, and thank you. I did think about the wooden air stones, but apparently they don't last very long, and I'm not sure if they would put enough air in the tube. So I'm using the original ones I had in the first skimmer. Thanks and take care, Terry.
Nice black water from the skimmer there Terry, looks like the Guinness is on you lol ! Your plants will love you a long time for that. Stay safe & well mate.
Started watching last night but my PC started playing up so just finished watching today and have to say it's one of your best videos. I found myself so excited and living every minute of the changes you were doing. I look back to the early days of you experimenting with a skimmer and the questions "will a skimmer really work on fresh water" well now we have the answer. Thank you once again mate and please, don't run out of jobs to do as we love every minute watching you work on these projects.😍 Stay safe.
Hi mate, and thank you for your kind comments. It's really good to hear you enjoy the videos. Your support means a lot mate. I'm not sure just where I'm going next lol. But hopefully I'll come up with something. I'll get my brain on the job lol. That's right mate, an awful lot of people told me, I won't get a protein skimmer to work on fresh water, and I nearly gave up the project. Really pleased I didn't now. Thanks again mate, take care, Terry.
I knew you'd crack it Terry, looks a very simple design as well, looks like a winter project for me, oh no, I'll have to re design all my pipework again to fit it in lol 😁 Be interesting to know your tds readings before and after its been running awhile. I've just got a bluelabs guardian monitor for a visual ph reading everytime I enter filter room, after a crash last year and beginning of this season, it also comes with a tds/conductivity probe, so now I'm getting OCD about TDS, ha, ha.
Hi Marek, Lol, I suffer with pipework changes as well lol. With that and the up-flow filter, I should have crystal clear water. Wow! sounds like your going all high tec mate lol. I bet that wasn't cheap. Thanks mate and take care, Terry.
@@Wrighty yeah, wasn't cheap, but gives peace of mind being able to see visual readout, I was testing Ph/kh sometimes 3/4 times a day, it was doing my head in lol 😁
Hi Terry. One way to improve your skimmer is by making the bubbles as small and dense as possible. I own Ocean Corals and Reptiles in York. We are marine livestock specialists. So I’ve spent the last 20 years working with skimmers. I appreciate these are salt water skimmers. But the principles remain the same. The very best skimmers all have the smallest of bubbles with as many as possible in the chamber. Using a pump with a pin wheel really spins and chops up the bubbles. Great vids (only just found your channel) I really appreciate the effort you put it. Great job 👏🏼
Ps, a true skimmer pump needs no air pump. They pull water and air in and mixes with the pin wheel. So you could end up saving on the old leccy bill too if you try it. I’m making one for my pond. But first I’m taking a £1500 skimmer from my shop and adding in to my pond to see how it does :)
Hi mate, and thank you for the tip. I will look into it. The bubbles from my air stones are quite small when they come out of the air stones, but do get bigger in the tube as they get to the top. Thanks for your kind comments mate, very much appreciated. Terry.
@@Wrighty you’re welcome mate. It’s raining here in York so I’m sat watching all your vids. Your pond is lovely. Credit to you. I love your motivation! Always working to better your pond 💪🏼 Yes the bubbles are small but nothing like what we use. I don’t know if pond water have to be as small but I can’t see why it wouldn’t. If you watch this vid from 5:30 you’ll see him turn his skimmer on. Look how microscopic the bubbles are and how wide the neck is where the bubbles rise up. I’m only sharing this as I want you to have the knowledge and maybe not need it. It’s all just food for thought. I hope it helps. Please can I asked where you got your Chinese media from? I’m interested in trying some. It looks great for the price!
Hi mate, and thanks for the link, very interesting. Them pumps really do breakdown the air in to the water. Would be very interesting to see how they work on a fresh water pond with all the extra water volume. I've got to do some re-arranging of pipework in my filter house before I do anything else, as aerated water going back to the bakki river is not good. The filter media I said was just over £100.00 is actually £127.00 when I looked. Here's the link mate: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224554341668 it's actually Js koi that's selling it. Thanks mate, Terry.
Hi just to say I have been keeping koi for 30years + and have a reef tank for about 15years +and have had more than 1 protein skimmers and you have to let them bed in sometimes it takes some weeks so give it some time 👍
Nice thanks for sharing do you think there's more skimmet due to temperature drop i.e in the morning when temp is at its coldest that's what I see take care mate hope your all good👌👍
Hi Matt, and thanks mate. The temp and weather does have a lot to do with the way they work. If I do a pond top up it stops working. It is good to see the crap it's taking out of the pond though. Take care mate, Terry.
Hi Andrew, and thank you. Most of the parts are on eBay, and you will need a 100 lpm air pump. I do have the build plans for this skimmer on my website: diypondfilters.com/shop/ if your interested mate, Terry.
@@Wrighty That’s brilliant mate might have to purchase that,just one more thing,are you pumping water in to it or pumping out? I have 2 gravity barrel filters with a varipump just wondering where I would install?? Before the pump I would guess. Keep up the good work 👍
Hi mate, I have a 10,000 lph variflow running at 40% pumping into the fines (up-flow filter), and the outflow from there, goes straight into the protein skimmer. Terry.
I wonder if you could get a Mazzei Venturi working on that? It’ll save on running the air pump, but I’m unsure if it’ll work the same in freshwater. Worth a look though.
Hi mate, I did try a venturi on the old system, but it didn't work. I think, the 1m head of water in the tube had something to do with it, not sure. I can't run one on this system because it follows the up-flow filter. Thanks for the thought though mate, much appreciated, Terry.
@@Wrighty Hi, you could look at running a manifold with a small separate pump to run the Venturi. Internal recirc on the skimmer, have it pull from the bottom of the skimmer and enter in the middle? Essentially like the commercial aquaculture units. Either way, great to see the stuff you come up with. Thanks for the videos.
Hi Gordon, The outlet flow ball valve controls the water level in the chamber, so I think it would be difficult to pump from there mate. You can have the return flow from the up-flow filter running to a shower, as many do, Terry.
@@Wrighty Thanks Terry thought that may be the case. Will have to run the fines filter on my bakki shower pump then use a separate pump for the skimmer from my moving bed and gravity feed the skimmer back to the moving bed.
Hi Charles, My Oase PondOvac 4 is working really well. It's a great bit of kit and does what it says on the tin. It is continuous vacuuming, so it does pay if you can return filtered water back to the pond, or you can get through some pond water. I have mine out flowing into my sieve filter which puts the water through my filter system and then back to the pond. Hope this helps, Terry.
Really pleased the wrighty skimmer is fully operational, cracking job mate. You also covered part of my next two upcoming vids which made me smile 😁. Stay safe Terry 👍
Thanks mate, sorry about that. You'll have to give me a heads-up next time mate lol. Take care, Terry.
@@Wrighty lol... will do 😁
Brilliant Terry just brilliant thank you
Hi mate, and thank you. I got there in the end lol. Take care mate, Terry.
Great info Terry you are an inspiration
Thanks Dave, your too kind mate. Take care and stay safe, Terry.
Hi Terry great video as usual, always very interesting was very surprised to see me pond on your channel absolutely brilliant thanks for the birthday shout out made my week 👍
Thanks again mate and keep going with the best Chanel on UA-cam
Hi John, thank you, you're very welcome and thank you for your channel support, really appreciated. I love your pond, great job you've done there. You have a great day on the 9th mate, and have a couple for me. Take care and stay safe, Terry.
That new skimmer modifcation is working a treat. It's amazing how much protein is being collected and all without the need for the blue barrel...lol. Great job as always Terry. Cheers.
Hi K R, and thanks mate. The new one is working much better than having that barrel stuck in the middle of my filter house lol. Thanks again mate, take care and stay safe. Terry.
Good video Terry, absolutely smashing video, you are the pond artist, amazing knowledge and inventions, nice video.
Hi Scott, and thank you mate. I just love a bit of a tinker, as you know lol. It just wants a bit of a tweak here and there and it should work well. Thanks mate and take care, Terry.
Great how your tinkering mind works Terry. Another cracking video mate
Hi Mate, you can't beat a tinker lol. I'm not sure how my mind works at all lol. See you soon, take care, Terry.
Way to go Terry, knew you would get it to work. I think you can say goodbye to the pond foam forever. Good one about the Guinness
Hi Rob, I have to say, thank you for having faith in me. I wasn't sure it would work at one point, but got there in the end. I got up this morning, and the bucket is half full. Really good to see. Hardly any bubbles on the pond now, and I can see a big difference in the water clarity already. Thanks mate, and take care. Terry.
Absolutely cracking set up that Wrighty. I find with my “up pipe” protein skimmer it works at its hardest through the early hours. The color of that discharge reminds me of when I first installed mine, over time you will notice the color won’t be as dark and the water clarity in the pond will be better than you thought possible.
Cheers Frank 👍
Hi Frank, and thank you. That's right mate, I did notice with the first protein skimmer I made quite a while back, the colour did drop off as it went on, and like you say, once it's removed most of the protein from the pond it will get weaker. I did also notice a marked improvement in the water clarity. Thanks again mate, very much appreciated, take care, Terry.
Top man very good video matey 👍👍👍👍 always look forward to seeing your videos, makes my day 😁👍👍
Hi Andrew, good to hear you enjoy the videos and thank you for your support mate, it's really appreciated. Take care, Terry.
Brilliant video thank you very much, you have such amazing skills very talented.
Thanks Frank, it's very much appreciated. Take care, Terry.
Fantastic work Terry mate 👏🏼👍🏼
Thanks Tom, it's always appreciated mate. Take care, Terry.
Nice 1 Terry that skimmer is working a treat now mad to see what it's actually removing
Thanks David, very much appreciated. I am very pleased with the way it's working, thanks again mate, Terry.
Another great result Terry, well done my friend, I wonder what’s next 🤔👍
Hi Anthony, and thanks mate. Not to worry, my wife's got me tiling the kitchen next lol. Then she'll want it decorating after that, I bet lol, thanks mate, take care, Terry.
Made up for you on skimmer Terry be interesting if you had clear pipe coming from up flow filter see it working great job 👍
Thanks Dave, much appreciated mate. That's a thought on the clear tube, I'll look into it. I can see a difference in the pond water already. Thanks mate and take care, Terry.
working well mate 👍👍👍
Thanks mate, A little tweak here and there, and it should work well. Take care, Terry.
Evening mate, just no end to your tinkering :) cracking job with the air stones think it will work a treat. thanks for sharing takecare too
Hi Kev, you can't beat a bit of tinkering lol. Thanks mate, Take care and stay safe, Terry.
Nice update Terry just a bit of fine tuning on the other one stay safe 🙏🐟🐟🐟🐟🙏
Hi Carol, that's right, just a bit of a tweak here and there, and it should do the job well, thanks Carol and take care, Terry.
Glad you went back to the original design, I would use wooden air stones as these produce much finer bubbles which will be batter for this application
Hi mate, and thank you. I did think about the wooden air stones, but apparently they don't last very long, and I'm not sure if they would put enough air in the tube. So I'm using the original ones I had in the first skimmer. Thanks and take care, Terry.
Nice black water from the skimmer there Terry, looks like the Guinness is on you lol ! Your plants will love you a long time for that. Stay safe & well mate.
Hi mate, and thank you. I am pleased with the way its working. The skimmet is Guinness black lol. Thanks mate, Terry.
ANother cool vid. Really Cool!
Thanks Mark, very much appreciated, Terry.
You finally got there, although it does look like you're distilling Guinness in that bucket 😂
Hi mate lol, and thank you. It does look like Guinness I must admit lol. Take care, Terry.
Started watching last night but my PC started playing up so just finished watching today and have to say it's one of your best videos. I found myself so excited and living every minute of the changes you were doing. I look back to the early days of you experimenting with a skimmer and the questions "will a skimmer really work on fresh water" well now we have the answer. Thank you once again mate and please, don't run out of jobs to do as we love every minute watching you work on these projects.😍 Stay safe.
Hi mate, and thank you for your kind comments. It's really good to hear you enjoy the videos. Your support means a lot mate. I'm not sure just where I'm going next lol. But hopefully I'll come up with something. I'll get my brain on the job lol. That's right mate, an awful lot of people told me, I won't get a protein skimmer to work on fresh water, and I nearly gave up the project. Really pleased I didn't now. Thanks again mate, take care, Terry.
lovey job on the skimmer Terry just more fine tuning
Hi Martyn, That's right mate, just a bit of tweaking here and there now, and it should work well. Thanks mate and take care, Terry.
I knew you'd crack it Terry, looks a very simple design as well, looks like a winter project for me, oh no, I'll have to re design all my pipework again to fit it in lol 😁
Be interesting to know your tds readings before and after its been running awhile. I've just got a bluelabs guardian monitor for a visual ph reading everytime I enter filter room, after a crash last year and beginning of this season, it also comes with a tds/conductivity probe, so now I'm getting OCD about TDS, ha, ha.
Hi Marek, Lol, I suffer with pipework changes as well lol. With that and the up-flow filter, I should have crystal clear water. Wow! sounds like your going all high tec mate lol. I bet that wasn't cheap. Thanks mate and take care, Terry.
@@Wrighty yeah, wasn't cheap, but gives peace of mind being able to see visual readout, I was testing Ph/kh sometimes 3/4 times a day, it was doing my head in lol 😁
Yes, I know what you mean mate. I think sometimes we do tend to overthink these things. Terry.
Hi Terry. One way to improve your skimmer is by making the bubbles as small and dense as possible. I own Ocean Corals and Reptiles in York. We are marine livestock specialists. So I’ve spent the last 20 years working with skimmers. I appreciate these are salt water skimmers. But the principles remain the same. The very best skimmers all have the smallest of bubbles with as many as possible in the chamber. Using a pump with a pin wheel really spins and chops up the bubbles. Great vids (only just found your channel) I really appreciate the effort you put it. Great job 👏🏼
Ps, a true skimmer pump needs no air pump. They pull water and air in and mixes with the pin wheel. So you could end up saving on the old leccy bill too if you try it. I’m making one for my pond. But first I’m taking a £1500 skimmer from my shop and adding in to my pond to see how it does :)
Hi mate, and thank you for the tip. I will look into it. The bubbles from my air stones are quite small when they come out of the air stones, but do get bigger in the tube as they get to the top. Thanks for your kind comments mate, very much appreciated. Terry.
@@Wrighty you’re welcome mate. It’s raining here in York so I’m sat watching all your vids. Your pond is lovely. Credit to you. I love your motivation! Always working to better your pond 💪🏼
Yes the bubbles are small but nothing like what we use. I don’t know if pond water have to be as small but I can’t see why it wouldn’t. If you watch this vid from 5:30 you’ll see him turn his skimmer on. Look how microscopic the bubbles are and how wide the neck is where the bubbles rise up. I’m only sharing this as I want you to have the knowledge and maybe not need it. It’s all just food for thought. I hope it helps. Please can I asked where you got your Chinese media from? I’m interested in trying some. It looks great for the price!
@@Wrighty here’s the vid. Send to 5:45 and see it turned up :) ua-cam.com/video/ItH-bByy0TE/v-deo.html
Hi mate, and thanks for the link, very interesting. Them pumps really do breakdown the air in to the water. Would be very interesting to see how they work on a fresh water pond with all the extra water volume. I've got to do some re-arranging of pipework in my filter house before I do anything else, as aerated water going back to the bakki river is not good. The filter media I said was just over £100.00 is actually £127.00 when I looked. Here's the link mate: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224554341668 it's actually Js koi that's selling it. Thanks mate, Terry.
Hi just to say I have been keeping koi for 30years + and have a reef tank for about 15years +and have had more than 1 protein skimmers and you have to let them bed in sometimes it takes some weeks so give it some time 👍
Hi Wayne, and thanks for the info mate. It does seem to be settling down nicely and producing some nice skimmet.
Take care, Terry.
wrighty bloody good set up there, my question is what would you tinker around with if you didnt have your wonderful pond?
Hi Martyn, and thank you. I think I'd be pulling my hair out lol. Thanks mate, Terry.Martin
Nice thanks for sharing do you think there's more skimmet due to temperature drop i.e in the morning when temp is at its coldest that's what I see take care mate hope your all good👌👍
Hi Matt, and thanks mate. The temp and weather does have a lot to do with the way they work. If I do a pond top up it stops working. It is good to see the crap it's taking out of the pond though. Take care mate, Terry.
Your koi and pond are stunning. Love the skimmer was it easy to source the tube and parts?
Hi Andrew, and thank you. Most of the parts are on eBay, and you will need a 100 lpm air pump. I do have the build plans for this skimmer on my website: diypondfilters.com/shop/ if your interested mate, Terry.
@@Wrighty That’s brilliant mate might have to purchase that,just one more thing,are you pumping water in to it or pumping out? I have 2 gravity barrel filters with a varipump just wondering where I would install?? Before the pump I would guess. Keep up the good work 👍
Hi mate, I have a 10,000 lph variflow running at 40% pumping into the fines (up-flow filter), and the outflow from there, goes straight into the protein skimmer. Terry.
What type of water flow do you have going though this looks a amazing job
Hi Arron, and thank you. I'm running a 10,000 Variflow at around 50%, the aim is to keep the water in there as long as possible. Thanks again, Terry.
Terry, you are the guvnor mate
Hi Ray, It took a while, but I got there in the end lol. Thanks mate, Terry.
Maybe cut a notch in the middle portion to make the exit for the foam slightly lower, can’t tell if it would end up draining your water tho 🤔
Hi mate, and thanks for the tip. I'd have to be very careful as it might get water through as well. Terry.
I wonder if you could get a Mazzei Venturi working on that? It’ll save on running the air pump, but I’m unsure if it’ll work the same in freshwater. Worth a look though.
Hi mate, I did try a venturi on the old system, but it didn't work. I think, the 1m head of water in the tube had something to do with it, not sure. I can't run one on this system because it follows the up-flow filter. Thanks for the thought though mate, much appreciated, Terry.
@@Wrighty Hi, you could look at running a manifold with a small separate pump to run the Venturi. Internal recirc on the skimmer, have it pull from the bottom of the skimmer and enter in the middle? Essentially like the commercial aquaculture units. Either way, great to see the stuff you come up with. Thanks for the videos.
Thanks for the tips mate, I'll have a look into it. Take care, Terry.
Have a look at a laptop cooling pad for under your air pumps. That should cool them down and they take up hardly any room.
Hi Mark, thanks for the tip mate. I will have a look into it. They do run warm. Thanks again, Terry.
Hi Terry. Is the water outlet under pressure IE could it be pumped to a bakki shower.
Hi Gordon, The outlet flow ball valve controls the water level in the chamber, so I think it would be difficult to pump from there mate. You can have the return flow from the up-flow filter running to a shower, as many do, Terry.
@@Wrighty Thanks Terry thought that may be the case. Will have to run the fines filter on my bakki shower pump then use a separate pump for the skimmer from my moving bed and gravity feed the skimmer back to the moving bed.
Question it’s just air stones an a tube? Do you need to add anything to made foam?
Hi Joey, no mate. Just plenty of air and water, and a good balance of the two. Terry.
@@Wrighty thanks for replying, next question does water have to be right at the top of the tube?
Hi after viewing the Oase pondovac 4 which i have now purchased from Garden site is it still working ok, have you any tips to pass on
thanks Charles
Hi Charles, My Oase PondOvac 4 is working really well. It's a great bit of kit and does what it says on the tin. It is continuous vacuuming, so it does pay if you can return filtered water back to the pond, or you can get through some pond water. I have mine out flowing into my sieve filter which puts the water through my filter system and then back to the pond. Hope this helps, Terry.
Is there still skimmit going in the bakki river?
Hi Mate, There is a very small amount of bubbles showing in the bakki river, but nothing to worry about. Thanks, Terry.
cant that go under the protien skimmer box you have made
Hi Andrew, If you mean the bucket, no mate, there's not enough room, as all the pipework comes out at the bottom. Thanks, Terry.
Sorry also smaller the air bubbles the better
Hi Wayne, that's right mate. I did look at fitting wooden air stones, but they say they don't last very long. Thanks mate, Terry.
Heh mate, what's this word skimmit?
Hi Paul, it's what they call it in the USA. Terry.
In the reef aquarium world there protein skimmers are very common equipment, we call it "skimmate" (or "skimate").
Hi Terry could I ask you for a email address ?
Hi Steve, My email is pondfilters@gmail.com