Hey kaysbelle, Usually my water lilies are in pots at about a 2.5' depth while they are actively growing. When winter begins to set in, I move them to the 3.5' depth in a pond. I've noticed some plants overwinter better when moved to lower depths. I also move my lotus to lower depths. Water Hyacinth is allegedly being voluntarily restricted because of problems with people taking their excess and dumping it in natural bodies of waters such as streams and lakes so you will probably find it increasingly more difficult to purchase if not illegal to purchase here in the very near future. Best to take in what you feel you need as starts for next year. It seems to overwinter fine for many but there are those who claim they move it and it's dead. I'd experiment with two clumps in two different areas of your home to see what is going to work well for you. About a week before you intend to bring them in, try floating them in a mild solution of Miracle Grow or similar product. Overnight should be fine. From there try one clump in a small washtub in front of a south facing window and maybe another clump in a less desirable location with fluorescent lights hung over the top of them. Get the lights in close to the plants. Maybe one of those overwintering methods might work for you? I've never overwintered Water Hyacinth but I've used those methods along with placing other tender aquatics in kiddie pools in my basement under metal halides and they made it. Can't try to help with your question about Hornwort because I don't know which one you have but as a rule of thumb fast growing plants such as what you described in small ponds are generally not a good idea in the long run. They can be nutrient hogs. Plants that double their mass in short periods of time often use up nutrients that other plants need to survive and thrive. The Anacharis you have is probably Brazilian Waterweed. I'd be very concerned about that particular plant but if you'd like to check it out on your own to determine what you think about having it in your pond, use the Latin name ( Egeria densa ) plus the word invasive in any search engine and you'll come up with tons of hits but here's a decent site where if you scroll down you can click on anything that might be of interest to you- http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/aquatics/brazwaterwd.shtml Anacharis can easily overwinter outside in our zone. Problem with it is that it is extremely difficult to control even when it grows in what we believe to be self-contained environments such as a small backyard ponds. Anacharis, like Hydrilla verticillata, can be spread to other bodies of water by birds. http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/PDFpubs/2524.pdf These are the states in which this plant has escaped cultivation- http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=EGDE Got any frogs kaysbelle ;) Frogs are our friends. Just teasing, I know some people don't like them. Hey Zinnia, I have 3 small herp ponds now supporting 5 different species of frogs and toads. I cheated though. Had a few biologists and herpetologists dumping over here. They were scooping up eggs and tads from vernal ponds that they believed were going to dry up prematurely and relocating over here while I was at work. I finally put up signs that instructed them what went in which pond. Basically; toads to the left, frogs to the right, and straight ahead with any bull frogs they might have picked up from other bodies of water. Ended up getting some interesting dragonflies and damselflies too. Species I've not seen over here so they must have come as and added bonus with the herps. It's kinda neat here at night with those dim photo cell walkway lights around the ponds. Those attract the moths and such and the toads just hang out waiting for their meal to come to them. If you don't have one of those cheap KMart type walkway lights, you really need to think about getting one. Just one of those can bring in prey for our little green friends. Time for me to leave to go wetlands exploring.

$5K seems high to me also, but I did most of it by myself. But I have to completely agree with you about the digging. I also have hard red clay. It took me several days (stopping when exhausted) with a pick and mattox to dig a 18" square hole for a useless dog poo disposal system. The pond would have been impossible without equipment. I had a local company with a mini ditch witch multipurpose machine do much of the digging for me. I believe they charged $50/hour and I used them for 4 hours to move lots of dirt and compost around several places as well as digging two pond areas. You might not be able to find that machine (bucket, scoop, and trencher) but you could find a neighbor to rent something or 2 somethings to get the job done for less than $200 for rentals plus whatever for labor. That should leave you with $4.5k for everything else and except for stone (if necessary)all other items should be way under the low hundreds. In my particular case, I gathered my own stone (but that may be beyond your abilities) and I included a 25' stream with plants that I believe does almost all of my filtering for me. I built my own small skippy filter but I don't think it does much. I have clear (chemically tested high quality) water, frogs, 3 gold fish that have turned into 15, and other healthy animal life. So my total expenses were a $200 pump, $200? for liner, some pvc and flex pipe/hose and fittings. I don't have uv light, skimmer or anything else. My total costs must be well under $1000. The pond is approx 5' X 10'.

Watershaper: You be in luck. I R an ingeneer. Cereally, I got this. Have designed similar systems in the past, and live in a fully off-grid home with components to my specification. Anyway, am putting in a pond this very summer. Like you all indicate, nothing but crap is out there in the low-cost range. I can cobble a COTS system together that has everything 'steiconi' lists, plus the items not listed (voltage regulator, backup storage, filtration system, and custom temperature compensation plus low-voltage cutoff embedded controller). In fact, evidently I will have to do it for our little pond to get something that is not crap and not overkill. If there is interest in it, I would be happy to sell the 'kits' with a flat $100 markup over my costs (for my design efforts). The components have to be properly sized and matched for power usage...likely steiconi's list is not. My guesstimate is that for a high-quality system, I can put one together in low lot quantities (1-10) of $350 plus my markup for a cost of $450. As others indicate, the result is not cheap. Note that if it did take off, and the lot quantity size increased to 100-500, one could surely substantially reduce the cost (and profit margin) so that you would be looking at perhaps $300-$350. Not bad, for a serious solar pond pump with filtration. Want to make it happen? Help motivate me! It is hard to invest a bunch of work in something and then not recoup anything on that effort. True, I will be making a pump system anyway, but there is an extra layer of work to make something to a commercial standard. If I don't see the ROI, I won't do it. For example, if I see a bunch of responses to this post, then it will suggest a real need to fulfill. Cheers, Here is a link that might be useful: Check out my book! (Has contact info too.)

dang it....I had a really well though out response all done, and my internet explorer crashed. So I'll try again...lol!! First...a few comments regarding how koi ponds compare to aquariums. Normally, aquariums are lightly stocked with small fish. It's really easy to keep the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate cycle operating perfectly in a correctly stocked environment. Same as a rock bottom pond...lightly stocked and properly maintanied it can work. In a pond's bio filter, ammonia is converted to nitrite and then to nitrate. Nitrate is most easily removed froma koi pond by way of regular water changes. Ever try to keep an aquarium with goldfish? Many goldie keepers I know keep no gravel in the tank at all, because of maintenance. That gravel gets really filthy very fast. I had a lovely goldie tank once....and gave it up. the maintenance was a nightmare! I'd rather deal with a huge koi pond any day of the week. Some people are reporting sucess with rock bottom ponds and no maintenance. Again...it is directly related to stocking levels. I hope these ponds continue to perform well for years to come, but for the vast majority of people, they will not. Most watergardeners install their ponds (and rocks) and then run out and buy a bunch of adorable little 5" long koi. The koi grow.....fast. They produce mountains of fish waste, which all gets trapped in the rocks. But because the pond looks clean, the owner is lulled into a false sense of security and does not think that there is a thing wrong, until the fish start dying or the fins start rotting off. Then they do one of two thing....they learn where they went wrong and correct their mistakes, or they just buy new fish (which is unfortunatly what most people do). Matt...you are on the right track with your new pond. You certainly can install your bottom drain now and add the rest of the system later. But instead of using a pipe cap, install a 4" ball valve on the end of the line. The water can't be permitted to sit stagnant in the unused drain line for too long or it will start developing the dreaded hydrogen sulphide gas. Opening that valve every couple of weeks and allowing the water to flow out for a couple of minutes will prevent the problems. I am attaching a link to the Atlanta Koi Club's web site. They have an excellent pdf that explains a lot about how a koi pond works, water quality, stocking levels, how much biofiltration is needed and many other wonderful facts. Cindy