Brenda: Thanks for your help. I have stepables planted in between the rocks around my pond. Maybe I can divide some of them up since they have taken over the rocks. I bought them last year at the end of the season for $6 a tray. I didn't even plant them. Just threw them between the rocks surrounding the pond and they took off. Sandy: Bought a bunch of watercress at Giant Eagle in the spring and just plopped it in my skippy filter. Only problem: it choked out my sweet potato vines. If you look in the third picture down in the "show before the snow pics" you can see the pond behind the bridge. It is 90% covered in wh and wl so it looks green. My poor fish have a problem finding their food. I don't want to throw any (wh/wl) out yet. Figure I'll just wait until the cold wilts them. I can still see the painted great stuff in my waterfall so this year when I went to the nursery C3D and Mike told me about I got some azolla for free with the plants I bought. I didn't even notice it till my waterfall slowed down. I pulled mats of it off the top of my waterfall and just placed the them over the ugly painted great stuff in the waterfall and "viola" they grew over most of the ugly spots. That stuff (azolla) is amazing. It grows faster than the koi can gobble it up. I also painted some of the rocks in the waterfall with the moss/buttermilk recipe so some of my rocks are covered in moss. Will take some pics of the actual pond tonight (azolla covered great suff and moss covered rocks too) if it's not raining. I was so proud of my other pond before I was forced to move by the developer. I couldn't imagine any pond being better that the old one. The old one being in the shade didn't give me nearly as much enjoyment as this one that's in full sun. Last year (1st year) it was "uh-huh". This year "wow." Wonder what next year will bring. I never had so many blooms on my water lilies. It seems like everything I put in this one just takes off. Of course it's not just the pond. It's the wonderful advice from everyone here on the forum. Jenny

I'm happy to give you prices of my recent build - but according to the forum I am in a really cheap area and you are likely at the other end of the spectrum. Here are a couple examples - 1) 520 sq ft Diamond Brite plaster spa and pool, including 6 drain covers, 7 returns, 6 jets, 4 ft bench, 3 barstools and cleaning - total $2240. 2) Excavation - $2900 (125 ft dirt walk, no rocks, etc.) 3) Steel - $3200 - including raised spa, and a 43' long one foot high raised bond beam. 4) Plumbing - $8900 - about 150' gas run, 80 foot run to spa, minimum 2.5 in pipe, 1 water feature pump with about 60 foot run, 2 skimmers, 1 circulation pump, separate spa pump, separate blower, heater, salt cell, filter, included all Jandy valves. Price included the skimmers and drains, etc, known as "white goods." 5) $2500 for material for travertine coping, I did the labor myself. $10 for pain pills after doing the labor myself! 6) $2300 for tile labor - smart enough to hire it done after doing coping myself! (I had a lot of tile, including 1" mosaic in the footwell of the spa, and he tiled the whole raised wall (3 rows of tile at 43') - he also grouted all the coping. Tile material was about $1500, including 2 large dolphin mosaics) Took 3 guys 3 whole days. 7) About $4800 for 800 feet of concrete deck including 6 drains, 3 downspout tie ins, around 80 feet of drain pipe, foam backer between concrete and coping, various expansion joints, and a couple of 4'x2'x2' pads to hold water feature. 8) $2400 for spray deck, including building and spraying a 22'long 16" high seating wall out of cinder block. 9) Right around $5k for equipment all Hayward - two 1 1/2 hp pumps, one 2 hp pump, 400k btu heater, 48 sq ft de filter, with valve, Pentair salt cell, 2 hp blower for spa, 2 standard 500w pool lights, one spa light, Intermatic timer. About $3750 for electrical - hooked up everything, including 3 outlets along the back of the property, plus one at the outdoor kitchen. Also ran 4 switches to the inside of the house, and added an extra outlet to a room in the house. We had a separate 200w sub panel added, plus an outdoor motion light at the equip pad. This guy was a little expensive but VERY good. About $7000 for gunite - I think...3.5 to 6.5' deep, 43' raised wall one foot high, raised spa - 7' round and raised 6", 3 barstools, corner bench, 3 steps at 12 feet wide, and a 3'x12' pad for equipment with rebar and about 4" to 8" thick due to sloping yard. Again, this is in Katy, TX outside Houston. I started on Halloween 2008. Most was completed in about 3 weeks, although I waited until this past week to do spray deck. Hope this helps.

In order for the water to go out the backwash line, it has to go through the multiport. If you don't have a sight glass on the multiport or the backwash line, you won't see any water going through the valve. If you have turned off your pump and water continues to come out the backwash line, then it is siphoning out through the multiport. This would happen if the end of the backwash line is below the water level in the pool. You can either open the air relief valve on the top of the filter, unscrew the sight glass or cut the backwash line after the multiport to stop the siphoning. I am 99.9 % certain that the problem is with the multiport. The multiport valve is the one with the spring loaded handle that has different positions or notches that the handle fits into. The handle is the one you change positions to backwash the filter.

I found the manual online. It advises 1 to 4 hours is needed for the storage tank to fill for full flow rate after installation of the unit. Presumably this may also apply to some level after the filters are changed. The battery holder screw is shown to be at the right side of the faucet base. Maybe your faucet doesn't have a screw and the battery holder releases by pressing upwards on it at the front seam. Is there an LED in the faucet base? If not then maybe it doesn't take a battery.