Chris,

Some people like stones on the bottom of the pond, in fact, one pond
installer champions small rocks and stones in the ponds, but the general
consensus for the people left with the pond after the contractor leaves is
that they are a pain in the fanny. You get enough crap in your pond from
dirt in the air, junk falling in from the wind, your trees leaves, etc. And
people are correct that the stones are places for the beneficial bacteria to
live but the stones cause problems when you are trying to clean the pond and
this needs to be done at least once a year. My ponds are makeshift because
I am a renter, but I can tell you that the containers I use get plenty of
stuff in them without adding stones to the mix. It is great to siphon the
muck out of the bottom of the pond and this is assisted by the fact that
there are not stone or rocks getting caught in the end of the tubes. Around
here in Northcentral Oklahoma, most of the people have nothing in their
ponds but plants and their containers and in the late fall or early spring
there is still a lot of crap that ends up in the ponds and rocks and/or
stones are no help when it comes to cleaning. There have been people who
have went with the Aquascape technique of stones in the bottom of the ponds,
but after a while they are pulling them out and keeping them out of their
ponds. It does make for a natural looking and appealing appearance to the
pond until the stuff builds up on it.

Tom L.L.
"Chris Herring" wrote in message
...

"K30a" wrote in message
...
Hello Chris,
Welcome to rec.ponds!

Thanks!

Big problem. Decomposing leaves can feed a pea soup algae problem. Lead
to
all
sorts of fish problems. But not to despair.
You can make a physical barrier with netting, probably in a tent fashion
or put
in a nice large skimmer.

That would be a big tent in my case (over 400 square feet). Hmm.. perhaps
I
could build a pergola/deck at one end of the pond, and use that to anchor
one end of a screen. I could anchor the far end at ground level. It (the
tent) would probably be ugly, but I would only have to look at it for a
couple of months every year. I will have to think about that..
By large skimmer, you are obviously not talking in swimming pool terms..
the
pool skimmer is about 1 square foot, and holds a couple of handfuls of
leaves. So I guess I would need something that was 5-10 square feet (?)

Don't toss the broken patio in the pool. You'll have a heck of mess
gather
under the rubble. Bad for fish.

I thought I read somewhere that it was a good idea to have a layer of
rocks
or gravel in the bottom of the pond, for beneficial algae to live on? Are
you saying that in a koi pond I should leave the pond "clean"?

Chris