Hey thanks everyone. Great feedback. I appreciate it. Boy am I tired though. Going to take tomorrow off. I figure I've moved and placed 77 rocks by myself which @ 65# apiece = 5000 lbs. Yikes. My neighbor, who is helping me has picked up and delivered 11,000 lbs.
You can see that putting the pond in so close to the fence was a liability when it came to digging the trench, placing the paver sand and then the stones. I had almost no room to work and fell in the pond once, nearly several other times. So, the level on the back side rocks isn't as good as on the front side, but it's plenty good enough.
On these fotos today you can see I rerouted the plumbing from the bead filter over the stones into the pond. This is temporary, but as you noticed the plumbing is above ground. This is only our second year. Last year I shut down the falls for awhile and drained all the piping beforehand.
This year, the plan is to keep the bead filter running but shut down the falls. I'll run the pipes along side the fence mounted on the posts and under the deck. I'm going to replace the deck and boardwalk so it sits on the stones. I designed the deck in 5 removeable sections that can be taken off for maintenance.
Say, anybody have any ideas on what to fill the holes in the wall with? As you can see there's going to be a lot of openings against which the underlayment and then liner will rest. I'm concerned about the liner pooching through those holes. On the house side I'm thinking of just filling the area with clay/soil with a slight slope. But on the back side that won't be so easy. Any ideas?
Boy, are everybodies fish as ravenous as mine. These guys can't seem to get enough to eat. Must be preparing for winter. Water checks out great, so I just keep feeding them in small amounts but frequently.