WE ARE
Black Hole Skimmers

Aquarium Surface Skimmer

We are still a small company, and even though our swimming pool skimmers are awesome, we are not able to manufacture them, yet. We have several fish aquariums in our office, so we decided to move our new technology to our aquariums.

We decided to use a powerhead to pull water through the Black Hole Skimmer. We tried several different brands and models, and finally decided on Marineland Maxi-Jet powerheads. These powerheads are inexpensive, time-tested, powerful and quiet.

This is a video of one of our first prototypes for aquariums.

There was a goldfish tank in the neighborhood. The fish in this tank were often over-fed and the water developed a oily slick that entrapped uneaten food and other debris. We really wanted to try the Black Hole Skimmer in this tank. This is a video of our experience.

We thought the skimmer would clean up the surface water, but we were amazed at how quickly it did so. This experience really motivated us to keep developing the skimmer to make it as effective and user-friendly as possible.

We finally got the design correct and had the parts manufactured. The final version is one of the best skimmers available on the market, and one of the most powerful. Not only is it powerful, but it is super easy to use. Just plug it in and it works. Unplug it and it stops. There are no flow control values or fine adjustments. It just works.

We continue to innovate our aquarium skimmer. For example, we recently created the GuppyGuard™ Topper, that can be used on top of the GuppyGuard™. It completely covers the top of the skimmer to help keep snails, shrimp, and other small animals from entering the skimmer funnel. Anyone who has purchase a Black Hole Skimmer can contact us and receive a topper free-of-charge.

Swimming Pool Skimmer

(The Beginning)

We started big with swimming pool skimmers. With this board mount, we tested hundreds of different designs and varying flow rates to find a skimmer that works really well and uses much less power. This is a video of one of our first skimmers.

We learned that we could open a hole in the surface where water and debris would simply fall in.

The more water the pump moved, the faster the water would fall in. In this video the pump is moving 4,000 GPH.

The funnel always positioned itself at the optimal height, which is the height where it can pull in the most surface water.

Finally, we learned how to create a floating Black Hole Skimmer.

The latest version of our swimming pool skimmer uses only 200 watts and keeps the entire surface of our swimming pool clean and free of floating debris.

We continue to develop the floating skimmer to make it lighter and more effective. We believe that these skimmers are one of the best ever designed for swimming pools. We also think that they will be very helpful in cleaning up oil and/or chemical spills.

Creating innovative surface water skimmers for ponds and aquariums

OUR STORY

Create better skimmers that are more efficient and use less energy than any other skimmer.

Pond Surface Skimmer

We were really excited about how well our Black Hole Skimmer worked in our aquariums. When we saw a pond in our neighbor’s yard, we decided to also design our skimmers for ponds. There are skimmers available for ponds, and our neighbor had one of these, but it just did not seem to work. The opening in the skimmer seemed too low and wide to pull in only surface water. In addition, our neighbor had to cut the liner in the pond to accommodate the built-in skimmer. With Black Hole Skimmers there is no need to cut the liner, and it can be easily placed in most existing ponds.

Ponds come in many sizes, so we wanted to develop our skimmer to allow a very wide range of water flow rates. We got our design to allow as little as 300 GPH and as high as 2,600 GPH. We stopped at 2,600 GPH, because our largest test pump is 2,600 GPH.

Testing in our neighbor’s pond was a great start, but we needed an innovative approach to pond design. So, we grab a shovel and started digging. We wanted a large pond, about four foot deep, with a ten by fifteen foot surface.

Our filter consists of three sections. The first of which is filled by a gravity fed bottom drain. This section has Matala screens and nets pre-filtering the coarser debris. Then, a pump moves the pre-filtered water into three vertical filters that also have Matala screens, and in addition Poly-Fill floss. We are calling these are scrubbers. The scrubbed water then overflows into a biological filter that is filled with pot scrubbers, lava rocks, and 3D printed bio type material. The bottom of the bog drains into the final section that overflows into the pond.

We also placed our Black Hole Simmer opposite the filter in the pond. The pump that powers the skimmer is placed on top of the bottom drain. Here it will aerate the water and create an upward draft that will move water to the bottom drain.

The water on the surface of a pond is much more aerated than the water at the bottom of a pond. Skimmers pull in this aerated surface water, which causes the less aerated water at the bottom of the pond to rise to the surface where it can be aerated. The Black Hole Skimmer will additionally mix more air into the water as it enters the skimmer. We can call this water super-aerated water.

The next trick is to get this aerated water back to the bottom of the pond. Many people will have the skimmer feed a waterfall, but waterfalls do not get water down to the bottom of a pond. So many people will install aerators that sit on the bottom of the pond. With a Black Hole Skimmer, we can put the pump powering it at the bottom of the pond. Not only will this create an upward flow of water that will also bring more bottom water to the surface, it will also deposit the super-aerated water at the bottom of the pond.

We created a swimming pool skimmer that works awesomely. So, we decided to create a floating skimmer for ponds. However, we had to be more concerned about size and weight. We still wanted our skimmer to be super-effective, but just not as bulky. We think that we achieved this. This is a video of our floating pond skimmer.

We will not be offering this product soon, because it is also expensive to manufacture. We have the patents, but just not the means, yet.

Now you know our story. We hope that you realize that we are no ordinary company. We did not start this journey to become rich. We started it to make the best surface skimmers available. We also are just regular people that expect great customer service from companies, which is why we will always provide the best customer service for which we are able.