It looks like a vault to me from the square top, unless they've changed their products. The centipede top is (was) a rectangle, more rounded corners. In the last picture the gravel looks way too small. At this point (latest pic) I expected to see much larger rock. When you cleaned the rock I assume you didn't remove any rock below the top of the AquaBoxes. True? I don't know if the installer put that undersized stone in there. If they did I would call the installer one last time and say undersized rock was used, you documented this and if you don't hear back within 24 hours you will file a complain with Aquascape, the Better Business Bureau and Yelp. Whether this is an Aquascape certified installer or not I would register a complaint with them. These things are ridiculously expensive meaning Aquascape makes a lot of profit and they really don't like some yahoo contractor cutting a corner so stupidly as not using the correct size rock and giving them a bad name. Give Aquascape the installer's number and they might give him a call too. Unless of course this was because of the DIY clean out. To remove all the gravel you have to remove at least some of the large rocks since it looks like the large rocks are sitting on the gravel. Don't want for them to fall down. Personally I don't like that building scheme but it is common. If that size of gravel was also used below the AquaBoxes it has likely worked its way into the vault's openings and that could be the main clog. In that case all the gravel would have to be removed and correct size rock purchased and added. Another shortcut is to buy a smaller pump. Or place a ball valve someplace on the pipe/hose going from the pump to the falls which may not be easy. And long term this might not work as more small rock clogs the openings more.

Mike, sorry I don't have a answer to your question, but noticed that your pool set up is similar to my pool design that we plan to start construction on this year. I've have a couple of questions that hopefully you could help me on. 1) Is your pool coping precast concrete? We would like to do a poured concrete coping but our pool consultant told me that they would not be able to glue the forms to any wall that had a stone surface. If you did a poured coping how did you do it. 2) What is the radius of the fire pit in the corner, we have two raised planters just like it and I was concerned that my radius was too tight for stone application (2' radius) 3) How do you control your fire pit by the pool, I'm thinking that I may want to switch my raised planter to a fire pit instead Thanks.

Hi Chris, I very much like having a SWG...the saltwater is softer on the eyes/hair/bathing suits, etc. I got it as an upgrade to the original contract because everyone here seemed to like them quite well. Originally, the unit that was installed 2 years ago was a Watermaid. The Watermaid runs with a higher salt content than most other manufacturer's units (6,000-7,000 ppm compared to 3,200-3,500 ppm in most units). Prior to running into the problem with the salt water corroding the pool cover, I did not particularly like the Watermaid as it tended to develop air bubbles when i switched the solar heating on and off and the SWG would often stop working after the solar was running. The unit MV replaced the Watermaid with is an Intellichlor. So far, so good (although, truth be told, I actually preferred the feel of the water with the higher salt content). As to coverstar v. coverpools, I can't say that I can truly compare the two. MV pools uses Coverpools so CoverStar was not an option. Had I wanted to go with Coverstar, I probably would have had to have subcontracted that portion out. Because I wanted it to be an inground unit, it had to be designed and built together with the pool. The CoverStar cover I had on my last pool was a much simpler system -- it was an aftermarket, deckmounted unit. It was not connected with the sheer descents, so there were no sensors to break down, no SWG, etc. Therefore, I can't really compare the two units, as it's not an apples-to-apples kind of comparison. Customer service (Alternative Pool Systems for the CoverPool and PoolSafe for the Coverstar) for both companies is excellent, though...I'd probably say Eric from Alternative Pool Systems (the one Mission Valley Deals with) would get the nod, as he has been exceedingly responsive and was totally on top of things with the corrosion issues). As for the decking, I purchased the pavers from Ackerstone in Corona. I liked their selection much more than what I had seen at RCP and KRC. Except for Friday mornings when Ackerstone sells their overruns at a *tremendous* discount to the general public (I got pavers that normally sold for more than $5 sq. ft. for $ .80 a sq. ft (yes, 80 cents!)), they only sell to contractors. Since I was in the process of a home remodel at the time I was able to use my contractor to effect the purchase. Southwest Boulder in Fallbrook is a distributor for Ackerstone, and I also bought additional pavers from them when I purchased my flagstone (they have a great selection!) as the delivery costs were lower. The coping and most of my decking, seating and retaining walls were installed by MV's mason - Uriel Hurtado. Notwithstanding a couple of issues that arose with the retaining walls owing to an over-zealous building inspector, Uriel was a pleasure to work with. He had some very creative ideas, and was very fair with his pricing. After the remodel/addition was finished (which was nearly 4 months after the pool was done), I took on landscaping and needed to make some changes to the decking (we moved a couple of doors going out the the deck and added a door to the master bath and guest bath). These were done by my landscaper as the pool had been completed and we had since moved on project-wise.

TIA, Thanks. Our stamped guys called it just textured concrete, but I have seen other names for it, such as rock stamp. I saw it first on this forum in a post by someone with a pool in Louisiana. I knew when I saw it that was what I wanted, so I showed several contractors the pictures and basically said this is exactly what I wanted. The color we ended up getting was called a sand beige, but again, I think all contractors have different color names. The thing I did not do was to seal the stamped concrete. It gives it a shiny look, and also gives it a slicker surface. I wanted a more natural, rustic look and the no seal really helps achieve that. phatcat, the DiamondBrite is a custom color that our pool builder mixes up themselves. It is not a standard color. I believe they call it Pacific.