Thanks Ben. The pool I have currently on the intake has a big hockey puck looking thing with several little holes all around it. You can put you hand right on it and you can feel the suction but it is not bad at all. I think with all those holes it spreads the suction over the surface area.

How would you go about adding a skimmer?

I have ran this pump on other smaller Intex pools and it has worked great. This is a new (to me) filter and the thing is huge. Probably way over kill for only a 12,500 gallon pool but it was free and I think the pump matches up well with it.