Black Hole Skimmers

Black Hole Skimmers Innovative water skimmer solutions for swimming pools, ponds, and aquariums.

03/31/2026

Mini Bucket Surface Skimmer for Aquariums and Ponds.

In this video, I demonstrate how I turned a simple mini bucket into a high-performance DIY aquarium or pond filter. This design features a self-adjusting skimmer head that maintains the optimal depth, keeping the water surface crystal clear. The bucket design allows you to use almost any type of filter media—mechanical, biological, or chemical—making this much more versatile than standard store-bought skimmers.

Perfect for:
• Clearer water surfaces in aquariums
• Debris removal in small backyard ponds
• Added biological filtration capacity

Learn more about DIY filtration builds: Visit: https://BlackHoleSkimmers.com

03/11/2026


Bucket filter?! It actually works.

03/01/2026

DIY Patio Pond Garden Using Aquaponics – Soil or No Soil?

This DIY patio pond garden uses aquaponics to grow plants directly above a backyard pond.

Water from the pond circulates up into the planter bed and returns down back into the pond, creating a simple patio aquaponic system powered by fish water.

The larger plant is growing only in rock media.
The smaller plants have about a 1-inch layer of soil on top of the rocks to help stabilize them, but the soil stays very wet.

So now I’m wondering:
Should I keep the soil layer… or remove it completely?

If you’ve built an aquaponic garden before, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

01/17/2026

Paddleboarding with the leopard sharks.

09/12/2025

PondLift – Bottom Filter, Easy Convenient Cleaning
I wanted a bottom filter for my pond that was powerful but simple to maintain. Using the pump from my earlier floating filter (inside a Matala cage) and the stand from my Black Hole Skimmer, I built a system that pushes water up through the skimmer stand into a BHS Filter Chamber. The chamber filters the water as it leaves the pipe, keeping the pond clear. Clean it by twisting the BHS Filter Chamber off the stand. Best part—it only takes about a minute to clean and doesn’t disturb the bottom of the pond.

08/07/2025

This is our newest small pond skimmer—keeping the water clear and the mosquitoes under control.

In San Diego, we have both Culex and Aedes mosquitoes, and they have different breeding habits:

Culex mosquitoes lay rafts of eggs that float right on the surface of still water—these can contain over 100 eggs at once.

Aedes mosquitoes lay individual eggs just above the waterline. These eggs can survive dry conditions for weeks until water levels rise.

Once hatched, both types go through aquatic stages:

Larvae (often called wigglers) swim just under the surface, feeding and breathing through air tubes.

Pupae (called tumblers) don’t eat but float at the surface and dive when startled.

Our Black Hole Skimmer removes eggs, wigglers, and tumblers—disrupting the mosquito life cycle before they become adults. It’s a great way to keep your pond clean and bite-free.

08/07/2025

While redesigning our entire skimmer line, I’ve been working on a few side projects to help maintain my own pond. This DIY vacuum is one of them—and it works great. Super versatile too! It uses the same body as the floating filter I showed off a few posts ago. I now use that filter in my bog, floating in the pond, and now... as a vacuum.

05/02/2025

DIY Floating pond filter that can be bird bath or a planter.

Recently I saw somebody had floated a carnivorous plant in their pond. I also wanted to do this, but needed to design a platform. So, I took one of the tower filters that I debuted in a previous video and mounted it to a 5-gallon bucket top. I placed the pump on the bottom of the pond and attached the two with a flexible pond hose. The pump moves water from the bottom of the pond up through the tower where the water can be enjoyed by birds or keep a fresh water supply to any plants on the platform.

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💬 Have questions about the build or setup? Drop them below — I’m happy to help!
🛠️ 3D-printable parts will be available soon at www.BlackHoleSkimmers.com
✅ Built for under $100 — scalable, easy to clean, and super effective.

04/29/2025

Tired of expensive, hard-to-clean pond filters? I build my own for under $100. Need more capacity? Just run multiple in parallel on the same pipe — no need to spend hundreds. These filters are simple to maintain and incredibly versatile. I 3D print the parts and will be making them available at www.BlackHoleSkimmers.com.
Stay tuned — I’ll show how I use these filters in my bog, in-line on my pond, and even floating on the surface in future videos.

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