Happy Friday

I have a 20,000 gallon in-ground concrete pool. I am considering converting
it
into a koi pond. If I decide to do it, it will probably be next spring (if I
can wait that long..), so I have plenty of time to plan. Today, these are
the issues that concern me:

(1) The pool is situated under a number of deciduous trees. As a swimming
pool, it gets covered in the fall, so keeping leaves out of the pool is not
an issue. How serious of a problem will the leaves cause, if they are
allowed to fall into the pond? I assume that I can't simply let them
decompose in the pond, as this would upset the ecosystem. So I would need to
remove them.. how hard will it be to remove (seems like about a million)
leaves a day for a couple months? Anyone else have a large pond under oak
trees? How do you deal with it?

(2) The pool is surrounded by a concrete patio, which I am not fond of.
Can I break up the patio and toss the rubble into the pond, or will this
make things unhealthy for the fish? The concrete is over 10 years old.

(3) Does anyone have a sense of how a pond (especially one that takes up a
significant portion of the sqaure footage of the lot) impacts resale value?
When we bought the house, the appraiser figured the value of the pool at
$7500. So if I removed the pool and let weeds grow there instead, I might
lose that much when I go to sell the house. What will a large koi pond do to
my resale value?

Regards,

Chris Herring
20,000 gallon frog killer