Really neat. I live in Flour Bluff on the east side of Corpus Christi, and I am wanting to build a natural pond in my sandy backyard using clay and then lining the bottom with white rock and limestone. I want to make the pond look like the Comal River in New Braunfels ( a natural spring fed river) and plant it and stock it with plants and fish from the river. I live in a Zone 10A climate (nearly tropical) with an average annual low of about 31F. I have a tropically landscaped backyard, and I think having a natural spring looking pond would be awesome underneath my jungle canopy I am starting to grow in the backyard. I would like to make the pond about 10 - 12 feet long, about 8 ft. wide and about 4. 5 - 5 ft. deep. with a small waterfall and filtration for the fish and aquatic life. I would like to power this with a small solar panel attached to the fence or the roof of the house (where it can get some sunlight). Any suggestions? Thanks, John

Hi Gena: As you can guess, I'm interested in finding successful solutions to those owners of pools that for reasons such as yours need a solution to all the problems associated with owning and maintaing pools. Presently, I have no good ideas for you but would like to find out what you end up doing in the end. If I locate a solution for your problem I'll pass it on to you.

So, our PB has now installed an extruded aluminum strip across the dam wall to give it more height (it adds about 1.5 inches). (I will get a picture as soon as I can - need to be in the pool and lift the cover up). It is set so the cover passes (slightly) above it. Good news is that now the pool has more depth; bad news is that I'm not sure this is a great solution long term (e.g. there are stainless steel screws holding it to the wall, but it is a salt pool). Not particularly happy about it since it would seem to mean that the dam wall is too low. Has anyone seen this done before? Is this a good solution or something that we should be concerned about? Thanks!

I am in between these same two colors for hydrazzo and have kids that will be swimming too. How did your pool come out? We were just told the hydrazzo is a $10K upgrade as well. Is it worth it?