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Message: [QUOTE="lillysbaba, post: 301565, member: 5292"] My humble two cents worth here; First, installing a liner with that many shelves and elevation changes will be an enormous challenge. We struggled with two shelves in our rectangular pond. Wherever there is a fold to accommodate the shelves there will be a place for debris to accumulate. I vacuum these areas at least three times a year and cannot get over the amount of debris that collects. Second, it has been my experience that Koi think that water lilies are a salad bar. I will never forget putting in a pot of floating heart into the pond. I went to find my husband to show him how pretty it was in the water and when I came back it was completely gone! I have also had them dig up the entire root of a lily, killing it of course. Over the years I have found plastic hardware cloth and wrapped it around the pot, making it just tight enough so that I can slide it up or down to accommodate the growth of the plants. Most of my koi are older than 10 years so they have finally figured out that they can't get to the plants and are satisfied to nibble on the leaves. All was well until we had a youngster from a spawn last year who was small enough to scale the "fence" and muddied the water so bad we couldn't even see the fish. Haven't seen comments regarding this, but it has been a major battle for me. This brings me to the third thing I would like to mention: Third: I think that the more separate systems you have the better off you are. We had endless problems keeping our skimmer from floating up (Oase freestanding skimmer) because we were splitting the intake between the skimmer and the filter. It was a real problem for a long time. We took the skimmer out for a while and it was very quickly evident that it was a mistake. I ordered a pump that would be dedicated to the skimmer and re-installed it, routing it through a Tetra bio filter. The difference in the water quality is incredible. So now we have four different pumps going and if something should malfunction we won't be scrambling around at the last minute trying to fix something essential for the well-being of the fish. Your design is really nice and it will be a real asset to your yard. Please write updates as you do the construction; it will be an inspiration to all. [/QUOTE]

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