THANKS so much everyone! I apologize for not answering. I thought I had set this site up to notify me when anyone posted responses to my questions, and I NEVER got an email. Finally today I came back to the site... OK, I will try to answer questions. First off, I THINK the problem may be due, at least in some part, to my accidentally pulling all the underwater elodea out of the pond back in the winter of 2003. My Mom had just died and instead of 'pruning' the elodea, I was angry and just yanked at it, thinking that I was just breaking off the upper branches. Instead, when the water settled, it was all gone. Until then things had gone, well, swimmingly! I used the formula of covering 2/3rds the surface area with floating/emergent vegetation and 1/3 the area with underwater plants. That worked wonderfully, but I can't get elodea to grow in the pond now! I've tried restarting it every single year and it just dies on me. ...and I'm even getting it from a nearby pond whose elodea was a start from mine! My pond's water is very acidic as our well water is very acidic. I've wondered if that was the problem, but the water was acidic when I started and the elodea grew well then! And, my friend's pond where I'm getting the 'replacement' elodea is acidic too. The pond is ~24 X 20 feet with a deep end of about 3' and shallow edges (preferred by all critters). My pond still has the swimming pool liner under the black plastic (not the thin plastic of plastic bags, it's PVC sheeting). The swimming pool liner was at least 15 yrs old and one of the reasons I wanted to get rid of it was I kept having black algae growing on it and it was a pain to scrub off, so I'm not certain if it had any algicide impregnated in it or not. I waited 6 years to start cleaning the pond from when I started it; I wish I'd started at 3 years because by 6 years the muck was nearly 6" deep. The reason I waited so long is because the dragonfly and beetle nymph hide in the muck at the bottom of the pond during the winter. I'm passionate about dragonflies, having become an author and lecturer on them because of building a pond and learning about them and discovering how little was known about them. (I apologize for having to mention this - it's not advertising here, it's to let you know what my pond is all about). I've tried to drain the pond each year of the last 4. But I've had a problem: the pond has a leak, and finding it is impossible - because of the high water table in the winter, water starts flowing INTO the pond when I drain it and I can't tell exactly where it's coming from because of the dual liners. I would not recommend using plastic PVC sheeting to anyone else who was converting their pool to a pond for this reason. When I suck up the debris off the bottom, it goes into a children's wading pool and I check for 'critters' there before allowing the water and silt and debris to be just thrown away. Yes, there are rocks on all of the bottom of the pond. I had to add them to hold down the PVC liner when I built the pond. And, they are the perfect place for critters to hide, but it does make cleaning the pond much more difficult. There are ~2400 gallons of water in the pond and the waterfall pump recirculates 550-600 gallons an hour. There is also a small 'frog spitter' in one shallow end. The source of the water is our community (6 house) well. Because of the leak, we have a constant drip going into the pond. The water is very acidic (pH of only 5) and non-treatable. We have had several large water companies TRY to neutralize our water over the years, to the expense to the community of about a thousand dollars, so I really can't change that. The only filtration is that we have the pump in a bucket with a sack of river rock over it and a layer of filtration medium over the top of the bucket. I have to manually clean the filter every couple weeks. There is no foul smell of sulfur or anything, just lots and lots of little bubbles forming on the bottom that then is 'pulling' the debris up with them when they come to the surface, usually in the early evening. Also, the Pacific Tree frog eggs are dying - they just start to develop and then turn fuzzy white (mold?). I fear I have some pretty serious problems! Anyway, I feel like I'm baring my heart here, and I sincerely apologize for appearing rude - I just thought I was going to be notified when anyone posted an answer to my question. I know this group is WONDERFUL and it helped me before when my pump broke and folks, within 7 mins, told me to float the floating oil that came out of it off the pond. I want you to know that I recommend this forum in the talks I give about building wildlife ponds. I guess I'm hoping that I won't have to take this pond completely apart and start again. For so many many years it was perfect, and it's been OK the last 4, but after I tried to muck it out this year, it just got worse! Kathy Biggs bigsnest@sonic.net Here is a link that might be useful: Bigsnest Wildlife Pond.

I still find it hard to believe myself, but I wasn't going to risk it. Home is suppossed to be a place of retreat and tranquility, not conflict. I just wanted to go about my daily home life, with worrying about somebody wanting a fist fight. Other people have been getting evicted left and right where I live, but it's not because of me. I'm moving to another place in a few months, because I've had somebody tapping on my back window, and strange people knocking on my door at odd hours of the night asking for so and so. My door stays closed though. If I don't know you, I don't open. My biggest pet peeve, is being panhandled in the parking lot by some acoholic. They always get a big no from me.

Oops, a line dropped out of what I was trying to write. What I meant to type is: Juliekcmo, according all available records, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser does not contain formaldehyde. It contains Formaldehyde-Melamine-Sodium Bisulfite Copolymer, which is a completely different chemical. If it contained formaldehyde in it, the MSDS would look like this: Here is a link that might be useful: MSDS for Formaldehyde

Each drawer has a heating element. You can easily see it. Remove the rack, wash arm, drain filter, and the large stainless steel filter. The heating element is the circular ceramic disk that surrounds the pump impeller. If the heater is bad, the machine will throw a fault code and/or cycle progress will get stuck for a very long time in the main wash and/or final rinse when it's unable to reach the target temperature. You didn't say which cycle you normally use or which model is your DD (603 or 605). Depending on which model and revision is involved, Fast may be low as 115°F and Fast Eco 105°F. Household water temp has more of an effect in that case if it's already higher than the machine's target temp. If you have the standard model with LCD, I can tell you how to get a display of the internal water temperature while a cycle runs. The integrated model without LCD doesn't have the temperature diagnostic. I've gotten a milky-white residue on plastics a few times, such as on these dark blue lids. Seemed to happen when the detergent dose was a little skimpy, and for sure when the detergent I use (WM GreatValue) went phosphate-free. It *hasn't* happened any more since I've been adding STPP and using no less than 4 teaspoons detergent for the main wash.