I'm not a turtle expert, I'll leave that to someone else. I had never seen a tree frog in my area until I put in my pond and last summer I had 12 at a time walking on the siding of the house near it. You may want to try dwarf varieties of water lilies. Dwarf "Sioux" is one of my favorites, its 6" pads nearly cover my 5'x5' pond if I don't trim it back once or twice, and its a prolific bloomer (even when I forget to fertilize it). Water canna lilies are vigorous growers and good for your back wall. My dwarf gets 3-4' high, and one with nice varigated leaves would be 6-8' if it wasn't root-bound :) Pickeral rush comes in purple and white, dwarf and regular. My dwarfs get to be 1 1/2 - 2' high and bloom all summer. And you can't beat water iris for nice foliage to cover the wall too. I got a nice big handful of plants here on the exchange last spring and they were bursting from the 5 pots I planted by fall (about 3' tall). My dwarf papyrus tends to be slow starting, but maybe I'm not treating it right. Don't forget oxygenators for the fish, and I think Parrot Feather would be great in the top. Floaters like WH, water cress and water lettuce are wonderful filters. Bigger plants won't go over the falls, but azolla probably would. You might try a water forget-me-not tucked in the rocks, they love flowing water. If they spread too much you just rip out a bunch and compost it. Good to keep the fish load down - my 6 feeder goldfish equalled 28 in one short summer, so plan on sharing. Your pond is lovely, I can see why you stuck to your guns to have your vision come out just right! Good luck and happy spring!

I know what you mean about others pointing fingers. My pond is almost three years old, and I've already done two rebuilds. Just can't seem to get it big enough to suit me! And my family just can't understand why I can't ever be satisfied. I think you have to be a fellow ponder to understand the desire. I don't have a bottom drain either, but if I can ever afford it, maybe I will do that some day. Right now, I have two submerged pumps going to separate skippy filters, and a skimmer going to a waterfall box/bio filter. My pond is 2500 gallons with koi. With goldfish and shubies, you should be fine with the pump you mentioned. Watch out for those online calculators, though. They can be notoriously inacurate, especially if you're planning on having shelves and stone in the pond. The calculations run from edge to edge of the pond, but the shelves literally bring the actual measureable edge farther in. Ponds with sides that are straight down are easier to calculate. Stone and rocks can displace quite a bit of water. When you refill your pond, be sure to meter it in. The easiest way is to record the numbers on your yard meter before and after you fill it (Don't run water in the house, though, while you're doing this. Even flushing a toilet can alter your reading). My meter is in gallons, but some are in cubic feet, so make a note of that. You could use either barrel for the goldies while you're doing the rebuild, but use a good airstone and pump to circulate the water. The bubbles will add oxygen and bring the bottom water to the top, effectively "turning the water over", which will increase the surface area. If you can, drop your pump in and run it to a temporary filter, even a bucket filled with quilt batting would work, as long as the water spills back into the barrel. Keep an eye on the ammonia levels in the barrel. Get an ammonia test kit. The test strips have a reputation for being unreliable, so get the liquid kind with a test tube. I think they're made by Aquarium Pharmacuticals. They're easy to use and more accurate. I'm using one now because my koi are in an Intex pool while I repair a leak -- naturally near the bottom. The silicone is drying, and I hope to have the fish back in tomorrow. Good luck with your project. Your yard is beautiful.

Chris: I am anxiously awaiting your pics too. If you store your photos in Photobucket just copy the HTML tag under your pic (third line) and paste it into your message. The picture won't appear until you hit preview message. Hope this helps. Jenny

Thanks everyone for your kind words. To answer some questions: The dimensions are aprrox 9.5 feet at widest, 14.75 feet at longest. Deepest depth 3ft, average is probably about 2 feet. The gallonage is probably somewhere between 1700 and 2000. The rocks are something called "Avondale Brown" fieldstone, since I live relatively close to the Avondale, PA quarry. We purchased two pallets (3 tons) of regular fieldstone, then hand picked four or five large flat rocks from a local stone and landscape place for the waterfall. The final result of the rock border took a long time to place. You can see in the other pictures our first attempts did not look so great. I give all the credit to my fiance. She hand picked each and every rock for the walls so they fit together perfectly.