Waterbug guy, First I will talk a little bit about concrete in water. You say it is a myth that concrete in water can kill fish and raise the PH. When concrete first sets up the surface PH is 12.0. Which is the same PH as a drain cleaner called "draino". As it is exposed to the CO2 in the air the PH goes down. But water is a very good leaching agent and so water will continue to try and get the chemicals out of the concrete. So will the PH in the water be raised? If the water has normal PH of 6.5 to 8.5 the answer is yes. The real question should be "how much will it raise it"? That question isn't easily answered as there are a lot of variables. Just to list some the age of the concrete, the condition of the concrete, is the water flowing over the concrete, the natural PH of the water, is the water being changed, and the volume of the water versus the contact area of the concrete. In some cases the rise might be so low as to make it very difficult to measure. But in other cases it can and does raise the PH to 9 to 9.5. At these levels it can and does kill fish. If I remember correctly you have stated that you are a pond contractor. If you are I hope you having started using roofing liner in the ponds that you build. Most of the time a person on this forum is never going to have a problem with roofing liner. Can there be a problem with roofing liner? This should be the question. The answer is yes. The chances that there could be a problem is very low. The largest pond product manufacturer in the US sent out a letter to all their customers a number of years ago. This letter said that all their liner in the future would be tested to be fish safe as they got a batch in that was not. In other words they were selling roofing liner as pond liner. This company had been selling a lot of liner for 10 years before this problem. If it had happen today with the wide use of the internet I would have think that some lawyer would have gotten this information and started a class action lawsuit against them and they would be out of business. The lawyer could easily have sued them not only for the cost of the liner that they had sold but for the cost to replace all those liners in the ponds built with them going back to the first time they sold this liner. The largest liner manufacturer in this country has told me that almost never would you ever have a problem with roofing liner but you might. I think that as a contractor you can't take that chance. If you were unlucky and did have a problem and were sued over that problem the lawyer handling the case would find out that they would sue for every customer that you have that has this liner. In other words you would be out of business. So is roofing liner toxic? No most of the time. But there is a small chance that there maybe a problem. I have only talked about 2 of the 8 things that you listed. I could easily talk about many of the other things listed but my point is this. You listed these things as black and white but they are not black and white. The only thing that is black and white about ponds is that all aquatic life will die. Mike

You'll never be able to keep it clean. Even well-run pools get leaves and muck and have to be vacumed. Leaves float and sink. And with the sand bottom you'll have to put scuba gear on because a vacuum will just suck up your sand and leaves. Skimmers work with suction. meaning you'd have to have a large pump... huge one.. with multiple pipings and multiple skimmers and the water will have to be blasted back in from the pump which could get the sand oscillating a bit and fogging up the water. Not to mention wildlife will move into this. You also should treat this sitting water. Don't forget birds might drop in it, animals might drown in it, and the water will eventually just muck up in various ways with various bacteria. I envision a real pain. Too bad you couldn't tap into the water, let it flow to a concrete basin, and out .That way you can keep it cleaner and controlled. Instead of letting it flow all the way to the valley, I'd tap into it higher up and let it flow into a concrete basin and I'd let the water keep on flowing and when it flows to an overflow area it will take the top surface with it.. leaves and all. .. and rejoin the stream. That way you always have fresh water, it naturally skims itself and you have a pool that can be cleaned based on leaves that sink, etc. BUT.. I'm sure there's more ways to accomplish this... that's my 2 cents.

After getting irritated that your neighbor did not tell you about the dye before hand, you boast that you did not tell him about dye you ordered? Wouldn't want to be the neighbor of either of you! You may want to ask your lawyer how your planned action differs from your neighbor's.

Its time again folks for those of you that haven't posted your beautiful faces to do so...Sparky that goes for you too my friend.