Jen, I have the 6 of the Black Knight brushes in my skimmer and I only have to clean them right now about twice a week. They do hold a lot of gunk. When I was using filter pads, I had to clean them everyday. The brushes have really helped the daily maintenance problem. The skippy is great for filtration. I have both the floor scrubber pads and the sprinflo media in mine. I'm not having to run the uv anymore and my water is clear except for the fines floating around in it. I was using my submersible enclosed with a mesh bag and quilt batting to clean the fines, but I was having to change out the batting once a day, and that got old real quick. It's been a couple of weeks since I vacuumed the bottom.. Do you think Shep can come up and vacuum mine this weekend?
I also use the Black Knight brushes. I have a few in the skimmer, 5 Rows in a mechanical filter box (after vortex), and a few in the skippy.
Lately, I've been cleaning only the first row in the mech filter. I've found that if I keep that first row relatively clean, the remaining rows may be left alone for much longer.
I need a new valve on my vortex drain- it's a pain right now. And if it's a pain, I wont do it. What's that saying? Hard work pays off in the long run... but lazyness pays off today. That's me.