I'm an Okie too. I love that native sandstone you've used around the edge of your pond. I used limestone, but I think if I had it to do over, I would use the sandstone. And I also have one of those little turtles sitting beside my pond, a gift from a friend who has since moved away.

Hi chas045, From the size of "Black Jack", I am guessing he's at least a year old now from what his parents used to be like. He must have been there all along, but the liner being black, I just never saw him before. I'll try and see about compressing the photo file, as you suggested. I have a dilemma with my lion fish, Pasqualine. She's 9" long and way too big for her aquarium. One of the local pet shops I go to has an indoor pond. I'll see, if they'll take her for the Winter for a minimal fee as room and board. She loves spending her Summers in my pond with the other regular goldfish. I would hate to give her away. When I first got her, she was the size of my thumb and only 2" long. Thanks for stopping by today, PJ

Algae spores are carried by wind, bugs, birds, etc. and so you will get algae in the new pond no matter what you do. If your filters are dirty, by all means clean them out and move them to the new pond. Use the old pond water so as to avoid killing the beneficial bacteria. If possible, keep some of the old filter media in some non-stagnant water to ensure you keep a lot of the good bacteria alive and then move to new pond when pumps are running.

Hirt's Gardens is same as Bulbmart and Seedmart on ebay. I have ordered from them once, and when I complained about them sending me two rotten and one completely split bulbs, they requested me to send even the rotten bulbs back to them. I did it. Then they requested me to send them my credit card information through e-mail with expiration date and safety code, so they could refund me the cost of bulbs without the shipping to me and the shipping back to them. So finally, a month later, I had to request a charge back from Visa, the credit card company. A year later though, I found out that when I finished my order on their web site, they also enrolled me for a consumer watchdog service that charged me $10 a month for not doing anything. I also had to call Visa to force this company to cancel my unwilling membership and give me back my money. I would love to have a Cherry Nymph, but I will not order from Hirt's (bulbmart, seedmart) ever. Double Nymph is just a name. Some retailers feel that they have to specify certain qualities of the varieties. Double Nymph is Nymph. The retailer just wanted you to know that it is Double. Smith and Hawkens sells Double Roma (the Double is important here, because there is a single version of Roma as well), labeling it as Red Double Roma, which is funny for someone who is familiar with amaryllis, since there is no other color for Roma than red, so by specifying it, they are really just explaining everything to you as if you were someone completely ignorant. But you know what? If someone just wants to buy a flower for certain qualities, then it might help him or her. If one wants to buy a double flower, Nymph might not say anything to him. Also, if someone wants a red flower, the name Double Roma might not help him in his decision either.