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

First of all, according to various people, you may want to reconsider keeping your catfish and pond fish together. I posted a link below - or you can do a search yourself on the subject. In our pond in Upstate NY (similar in zone to you), I remove all my tropical plants in early October. We cut back our hardy water lilies which are planted directly in the pond and drop to the bottom the other hardy plants. Our pond is 3 feet deep and approx. 3,000 gallons so the fish overwinter in the pond. I don't know what you should do with a pond that small. We purchased a plastic 100 gallon tub at Country Max for our tropical plants, and I think that would work well for your fish if you decide to bring them indoors. You would have to add a pump or air stone for aeration and something for filtration. My husband altered the "plug" with a faucet and we can drain it pretty easily with a garden hose into our basement sewer come spring. Here is a link that might be useful: catfish in a pond

conifers are not annuals.. nor perennials ... nothing is going to happen all that fast .... they put on growth in spring.. and then sit there until next spring ... no matter how many times you look at it... you probably arent going to see anything .... trees/conifers have 100 year life times ... relax ... they heal themselves .... one of two things will happen ... if the new growth is still softish .. you still have time for new buds to set for a new leader to develop ... but you probably wont see those for 3 to 4 months .... not weeks .. nor days ... in the alternative.. if no buds set .... one of the branches below the break will become the dominant leader .... achieving a lateral dominance ... you will notice this in two to 3 years .... keep it properly watered... and mulched.. and try to forget about it... it will take care of business itself.. this has happened on MANY of my mail order conifers... and the hardest thing i had to learn about conifers is the time frame of how long it will take to disappear .... or how long it took me to quit fixating on it .... lol good luck ken

Holly sent me a link to this thread to see if I could help you with some specifics. I'll just tell you about some of the jobs that I've done to see if that helps you with any specifics budgeting information, and if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Let's see. I'm doing a job right now in East Memphis with 35K worth of Dynasty cabinets in a painted maple finish. 8' ceilings with 36" tall cabinets and 6" worth of crown molding, a custom china hutch and wood hood. And a few other details like mostly drawers and an oven cabinet. 8K worth of Cambria for the counters and 10K worth of flooring, and 3K for the backsplash. I think her appliance budget was 10K, but she says she doesn't really like to cook all that much. The overall budget for the job is around 75K, and most would consider the home fairly high end for an older home in the area. I did a home in Collierville in Kemper Cherry cabinets for 48K, but that included a dining room hutch, breakfast room pantries, an entertainment wall, and a powder room vanity. 42" high cabinets with molding in 10' ceilings. The island used some funky shaped specialty cabinets, and she did an exotic granite that was 12K. Not a lot of specialty items in it, just a lot of cabinets. I would call the home a high mid grade family home. I'm working on a new build in the Forest Hill Irene area that will have around 70K worth of stained gray Dynasty and Omega cabinets in the two kitchens. (They fell in love with the Porch Swing desk area that I have in the showroom, shown below.) They have a very simple modern aesthetic and VERY tall ceilings with 27"s stacked on top of 42"s. The Silestone counters will probably end up being around 20K, simply because they have to purchase whole slabs and they want different colors in each kitchen and bath area. I think it's around a 8M build price for the home, so definately upper end for this area. Or just about any area! Dynasty Porch Swing on Cherry So, I think your 100K budget would probably be overkill for this area, unless you are wanting something with a lot of details like corbels and onlays and lots of glass and stacked cabinets. That can add up quickly! Even so, upper end in this area isn't quite so costly as East or West Coast areas. I work with a couple of full service licensed general contractors if you'd like some names, or just a good old boy installer if you'd prefer to be your own GC on the job. If there's any way I can help you to sort your thought processes out, let me know. You can reach me through email on this forum if you like. Or, I'll answer your questions here as best I can if you prefer that. This post was edited by live_wire_oak on Tue, Jul 30, 13 at 17:27