Birdwidow I've kept a 150 outside now for two years.gets dappled sun ontil around 2 then complete shade. I use it for a reservoir for a waterfall as well as a watering system for orchids. i keep assorted plants in it as well as tetras barbs ,swordtails algae eaters. have been rather surpised at how successful it is just as an aquarium.lol In spite of all the light, and runoff from the ferts. it stays almost algae free. The biggest best looking plants I've ever grown lol. have read so many dire warnings of keeping aquariums in sunnlight. i connected it to the 5x10 lily pool last year to see if i could maintain temps through winter. Used 1500 watts of standard aquarium heaters. As long as temps stay above 40 it works fine but a low of 35 caused the whole system to fall into the 60's This is easily taken care of by putting bubble wrap on the pool and styrofoam on the tank. But i wanted to use the system to warm the air for the orchids 35 was the low and I feel winter is over so didn't get much of a test. Was hoping to do away with the space heater and warm everything with the water. Maybe more WATTS lol gary

We have Black Onyx Pebble Sheen, without any added shells. Before choosing this color, we went to see a pool that had the Black Onyx with the shells, which convinced us not to have the shells added. They may do it differently now, but at that time (2004), the shells were "hand seeded" -- think of a farmer tossing out chicken feed, or a card dealer tossing out the cards to the players -- and the result is rather uneven. Anyway, the Black Onyx is the Pebble Sheen equivalent of Black Pearl Pebble Tec, which is "one step" darker than the Black Marble Pebble Tec. Here's a photo taken shortly after the pool was filled, which shows the water color:

pebbletec vs. pebble finish.....apples and oranges. painful sores?...that is beyond an extreme example, and again, i really doubt it was pebbletec or pebblesheen. both of those products use smooth, tumbled pebbles, there are no sharp edges (especially pebblesheen....pebblesheen feels like a the surface of a basketball). there are other (less expensive) pebble products out there -- a lot of other companies decided to mix plaster and pebbles to cash in on the pebble trend -- but go look at their samples and their websites...you can even see in the photos that the pebbles are not rounded or tumbled, and they often have a more plaster (which is rough) exposed than the pebbletec products. i have a 16 year old and a 13 year old, both with a boatload of male and female friends who spend a hours upon hours playing and roughhousing in our pool. no torn up feet. no sore feet. no complaints. ask your pb. read a bunch of the pebbletec threads here and learn from pebbletec owners. go try the pools yourself.

I'm 72 and have a really bad back (DDD at multiple vertebrae sites) that allows only very brief bending. Have broken both femur heads (below knees) in an inside fall, and although both are healed, it is painful to get on my knees for more than 5-10 minutes at a time, even using foam pads. Just this past year, I've decided mulch, fabric, newspaper and cardboard are all short term and I'm always right back to the messy, weedy beds that are even harder and more time-consuming to weed because of the items just listed. My decision this year is I'm done with ALL OF THE ABOVE methods for controlling weeds. I've ripped up the fabric from the one bed I had it in under a primrose jasmine that roots wherever it touches the ground (since dug up & removed). Last year I pulled up the newspaper & cardboard in one small bed. From here on out, I'm using the weedeater exclusively. I'm not a flower gardener and the few varieties I can keep alive are in pots off the ground so I can weedeat around the pots easily. I stick to flowering shrubs and trees instead. Unfortunately my father did NOT pass on his green thumb to me. Rose bushes and flowering shrubs are just easier to weedeat around. I just hold the whacker close to the ground and let it rip up what it will down to bare soil. I prefer the soil look to mulch or rock. I hand pull weeds that get closer to trunks if need be. I go through a lot of WW twine, and that adds up, but spending $$$ on twine is worth it to save me the resulting back & knee pain. Every spring my husband is always whining we need to mulch all the beds, but he just a 'spread it and forget it' kind of guy. It's me that ends up with the aftermath of his decisions. It has been a areal bone of contentions this year in particular. So I'm DONE WITH IT! Need to get out and weedeat it tomorrow, in fact, but it'll be done in an hour or less, as our yard (and beds) are small. :)