We are very sorry you are carrying such a grudge toward us for not fulfilling your short order. We are also sorry for your not reading the home page or any category page that stated the minimum order is 100.00. We chose this small amount to allow many people who are not in business access to material at a discount and particularly small business minded people that also want to make minimal orders for their small businesses. We do set the terms, conditions and methods of our transactions with our customers. No we are not in the least interested in competing with "mr lightening speed bonsai business". Our sales are double those from last year. In just this week, we have received 2 small orders that we attribute to people that may have read this forum. We have daily stats of the traffic coming from this forum alone. Naturally it was our intention reading the pot blog to let everyone know we could send them a case of pots. We did not expect your jumping on here with your upset over your short order. We are sorry that you did not come back with an order that did meet our minimums and the offer is still open at any time. For our 4th. we are repotting a couple trees that need it, moving all the cases of pots we have to a new storage shed we have made for them. Build a few web pages on our retail site and later in the day going family and friends fishing and crabbing and doing a BBQ on the fish pier until midnight. Tomorrow is just another ship it out day. Hope ya'll have a great 4th of July celebration of our independence from tyranny. God Bless America.

Hi garyfla. Wow, this is an old post, good to see you! I ordered from dragonflyaquatics dot com back then and have continued every year since (well, with the exception of last yr when I broke my leg and couldn't get out to piddle in my puddle). In fact, just yesterday I was pondering this years order. I need to get on that.. I've had an excellent experience with them and their customer service is nonpareil. Some time back, I realized a few hours after I placed my order online I'd left an item off and called to add it. My order had already shipped (!) but they shipped my addition out the next day and even tossed in some plant weights 'for my trouble' when it was totally my issue, not theirs. I give them a strong recommend. Hope this helps.

I've always wondered over and over again how garden web keeps spam off it's walls. With the number of people visiting these forums, you'd think there'd be loads of the stuff everywhere - I know the google groups are filled to the brim. The ivillage people (here comes the disco music) must be really good in their forum moderation. If this was a genuine informative post (which I doubt since the link is a dud ebay link and the OP joined today just to post this) I'm sorry. :)

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