thanks for the response guys. i talked with a guy this afternoon here in town (river city koi), and it looks like my skimmer is too small for my pump. i pulled the pump out, and it's a 3360 GPH pump with a 7' head. it's a stainless tsunami, i believe. so i have a great pump, and a small skimmer. their recommendation is to buy a larger skimmer. a big bahama, i believe.
in the meantime, i have decided to put a good bio media in the skimmer, and i put my mechanical sheet filter material in the waterfall above. putting the filter material in the waterfall also helps regulate the amount of water flowing through that big pump.
so far, so good. the skimmer is staying full, and it looks like a lot of debris is being caught by the filters in the waterfall. i know it's kinda bass akwards, but i'll just have to see how it does.
what do you guys think?is this a solution that might work?
thanks again for the input. aaron.