I'm gonna snip some and add a few comments after Joe's.

Regarding the AS system my only negative reaction to it is rocks IN the
pond, at least on the bottom of it.

Wlucas4 wrote:
The 'Aquascape System' has the be the WORST pond system on the market. The
whole pond system is really poorly designed.

Joe reply: Whoa, calm down a notch.

Wlucas4 how long have you had your pond? Joe, sounds like they just got
done cleaning it and found out what a JOB it is... but then I have to clean
out my lily pond in a similar way and it takes 6 hrs and many days of
painful muscles. ;o) So I can relate to the rant. I don't power wash it,
cause I want the algae on the sides, and I don't have fish to worry about
as the little guys that make it through winter are moved to a holding tank
to grow out and trade to the LFS.

-Adding rocks to the bottom of the pond is absolutly horrible. All of the
fish waste, all of the leaves and plant debris gets caught on the bottom of
the pond and can never be cleaned out. It is just a giant breeding ground
for aermonus bacteria

Yep, you got that right. Do a search in Rec.ponds from Google looking for
Subject: *Aquascape and similar ponds* and read that discussion, especially
the post from Gregory Young.

-How are you suppost to clean the 'biofalls'? If you pull the filter
material out and wash it with a city tap hose you will kill all of the
bacteria that was growning on the filter material.

I believe you simply slam the filter on some hard surface a few times. Works
for me.

The only problem I have with whopping floppy things on to hard surfaces is
the whopper usually gets as mucky as the whoppee. ;o)

In the system there is
no way to clean out the dirty water in the biofalls after you pull the
filter material out.

Turn off the pump and siphon it or use a pail.

A shop vac is very useful for this application.

-Draining out the entire system and powerwashing it is a very bad idea too.
All of the good bacteria will be killed from the clorinated water and you
will be stuck with the new pond symdrome year after year. It could take
months depending on your fish load to come back online. It is very bad for
fish to have a high amonia and nitrite level.

Joe replied: I've never heard anyone saying to do this.

It's in the owner's manual of the AS system. Every spring, (and thi$ i$
what Glenn Rieker'$ www.gardenhaus.com maintenance crew doe$), you pump
out the pond and power wash it. One has to remember though, the AS system
is meant to be a WATER GARDEN not a Koi Pond. So the fish load is suppose
to be low, to very low, and the vegetation VERY high. If this is followed,
and you don't live in a dust storm prone area, it can work. I still would
not recommend rocks on the very bottom, the ones on the side you could wash
away much of the muck.... but, all one has to do is lift one rock to see
how much muck is getting left behind. Once you refill and adjust the temp
and pH to the holding tank, adding dechlor if needed, you can put the fish
back. One should have not been feeding the fish before doing any of this,
and ideally pump as much old clean water into the holding tank(s) to pump
back into the pond when finished. Lastly I'd have a big bottle or better
the dry powder of Amquel on hand and watch my ammonia closely for the next
3 weeks and check the KH & pH right away, ask if you don't know why.

(I don't have a pond designed by
Aquascape but I do have a skimmer and bio type falls. I think they work
fine)

-It is impossible to keep the rocks clean
Yes...

and not having sting algae growing
all over the rocks in the pond.

..no. I have some algae on the rocks. If someone building a pond expects not
to have algae on submerged rocks, they are in for disappointment. I suggest
this is a problem not unique to Aquascape.

The problem with power washing every spring, besides being a BIG job, is
the pond never matures.

Since adding a skimmer and bottom drain to my koi ponds, in the spring all
I do is fill the out-of-the-pond filter with dechlorinated water, open the
plugs from the pre-filter to the bio-filter and turn on the pump. The ponds
are perfectly muckless on the bottom because 1) I shop vacced the muck out
of the bottoms (without draining and removing the fish) in the fall and 2)
I put a screen over them afterwards that stays till I turn on the filter.
Totally no stress for the fish and especially for ME. ;o) Plus, the pond is
mature so I don't ever have a spring algae bloom nor String Algae, because
of the nice coating of fuzz algae that isn't washed way on the sides of all
inner surfaces. ~ jan

See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
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