jcjcjcx if you keep water in the pond it will protect the walls from collapsing. When you have a full pond then the pond water creates enough pressure against the walls of the pond to keep it intact. Fill her up! Regards, Lisa

The pond is built in a raised garden bed right off from the deck, so nice and close to the house(I can look out my art studio at the pond!) The pond is 6ft wide 10ft long and 39" deep. I have pretty well scrounged everything for it. I have a new pump, Laguna 1500pump, Cyprio Bioforce 2000w/uv filter. Rebuilding this cuz of the great idea of using sandbags to build a retaining wall at the waterfall end...well, the bags got damp and rotted so when the water pressure wasn't hold them in place anymore...they did the old gravity slide down into the pond!grrr, rocks sliding along the liner...arg!!! I added that nice pc of granite for the water to flow over, it is such a nice contrast to all the grey! It took some tweeking to get the water to flow over most of it as it is so nice all wet! Got some fish into the pond on sunday, and they are eating from me already! Just fancy goldfish, but I am such a big fan of waterlilies that I was concerned if I got any koi, that they would mess with them. not to mention that I have had a visiting otter so goldfish are cheaper to replace! BUT that being said....the fish went missing when I had my milkcrate island out of the pond(it was fish in a barrel then!)My idea for the arbor over the pond is to get some fishing line around to thwart off heron, haven't had to yet. But the straight sides(no planter shelving) has stopped racoons from getting in. I just hoope the otter will be discouraged with the big crate to swim around! Plus the fish are small and can go into the milk crates! Yup, just getting to play around the pond again is so great, I REALLY missed it!!! Got to get my lights set up again(The castle lights up too!) The lady down the road makes these amazing baskets(master gardener x 1000!) Our growing season is late this yr but these hanging baskets are really gonna take off and be spectacular! I put the cross on the castle to remind myself to be grateful that I have such an amazing life!!!

Ok, that makes sense. I forgot that every time it turns back on it would continue pumping. duh. The bottom drain is an Aqua Art retro fit bottom drain with 3" opening. It is connected to a black flexible tubing that is really hard (almost w/ a metal coil in it?). It is reduced from 3" to 2" and then runs back to the pump. I had a Sequence pump but that thing sucked (not literally, unfortunately). I had to have it repaired 2x and it was NOT cheap to begin with! It lasted 2 yrs. BOOOO. When it last gave up the ghost, it was 1.5 months ago. I found a hayward 1.5 HP super pump on craiglist for $150. The pond was w/o a functioning BD for about a month. Here is where it all goes downhill. lol So the previous pump was connected to the hose in from the BD and hose out to the bead filter by the black hoses that were connected with a black screw-on style of fitting. They simply did NOT come off, no matter what. The new pump had smaller openings and so the old fittings wouldn't work. We had to cut off the "screw" ends and use compression fittings instead (the black squishy sleeves w/ two metal bands that you screw to tighten). The first day that we turned the pump on and were messing w/ it, the same top fitting popped off b/c it wasn't seated properly (the hose hit me in the head, almost knocked me out from the pressure...lol...bruise on my forehead for 2 wks!). Because of that, I was paranoid and was actually shutting it off at night...just in case something went wrong. (I know, this is a long story lol) Saturday during the day, we saw that the pump was emptying faster than the water could come into the basket and we realized the BD was partially clogged and decided to get in the pond and get it freed up. DH jumped in and pulled it up...cleared it out and then set it up on two large pieces of flagstone so it wasn't directly on the bottom of the pond. (Note: had he not done this, when the disaster happened, it would've drained the ENTIRE pond. Truly a lifesaving decision for the fish that lived in the remaining 6" of water b/c of that flagstone!) Anyhoo, everything was riproaring along at 100mph again and I was checking the basket frequently...not much there. That night was the ONE night I didn't unplug it overnight...I forgot. Small debris plugged up the basket, increasing the pull of the pump, which started moving around the hose on the top of the pump. It was moving enough to pull the compression fitting off and it popped the hose off. The water simply geysered out of the top of the pump until the pond was almost completely empty. SOOOOO...way more than you asked but I have known you long enough to know that you like a clear picture, MIke! LOL I"m hoping that makes the error of my ways clear enough! At this time I am only running the BD during the day and am trying to find screw-on fittings to replace the existing compression fittings. Additionally, I have bungee'd the BD to a crate so it is a foot off the floor of the pond. I have also been partaking of some retail therapy and have a little mass of baby koi in the pond right now. They just came up and started eating food this morning and I literally screamed with delight LOL! I'm not sure how these water bobbermcthingie's work but I *think* the external pump is close enough that if it truly does have a 20' cord, I can put it in the body of the pond and run the cord back to where the pump is. Need to get to the store today and get one to rig it!

This is NOT AKCA approved.... I recently had the opportunity to collect two 20" koi and two 12" koi from a gentlemen who was moving and had no water feature to move them to. His old house was soon coming out of escrow, so I had to move quickly. The two houses are @ 15 miles apart (disclaimer: do not attempt this without proper O2 levels over large distances). Here's what I did (my apologies to the koi police) I purchased a plastic storage container, large enough to accom. the fish, but small enough to fit in the back of my SUV. I washed out the container (lid and all) and placed it in the back of the car. I packed a couple of cinder blocks around the container so it would not slide in transit. BEFORE leaving my house, I set up my "Q" tank also. I brought along with me a little pond salt, Meta-fix, water conditioner, 2 "Brand-new" yard sacks, a large beach towel, and a koi net. I arrived and first put water ( about 1/2 way up ) into the container in the back of my car. Then I treated the water with conditioner, a LITTLE salt to help with stress, metafix to combat possible injury during transport, and a little sweat of worry. Then I went into the backyard and INDIVIDUALLY worked a fish into the brand new yard bag. I place the bag in the water, work the fish into the bag GENTLY, then slowly quietly remove MOST of the water from bag and moved the fish to the transport container. I did this with each fish. When they had been placed into the container, I put the lid on, threw the towel over to block out light,and transported them. NOTE: koi show stress by bleeding a little out their gills; not a good sign. There is a need to keep them calm. At the other end, I repeat the procedure (starting with the first fish in) with a NEW yard bag. When I open the container, they had calmed from the salt and the light block. 9 months on and those fish have adjusted and are loving their new 6,000 gallon home. Lastly, I attached an article from the Koi Club of San Diego website. LP Here is a link that might be useful: Transportation of Fish in Bags