Koolscapes 400 Gal Starter Pond Kit with Fountain, 340 GPH Pump, Liner

I got the wild idea to build a pond in my backyard so looked for an inexpensive starter kit and bought this one. The materials are of high quality. I priced it out and it would cost about the same to buy them all separately, so the kit is a convenient way to go. The solar light looks beautiful, and the two plastic lily pads look great, and I've kept them in even though I now have real lilies, so those are nice little additions. I was concerned at first that the filterless pump might be a problem (figured I'd probably need a filter at some point) but decided I'd add one later if I ended up liking my pond. (more about that later) I have to say up front that their customer service gets and A++. When I measured out the lining, it was 8" short on one side. I contacted the manufacturer to let them know that this was a problem because my pond design was circular and I definitely needed the full 10' x 10' liner. They immediately sent me a new one with no hassle, did not require the original one back, and gave me a 15% discount coupon to use on any future order at their site, which has thousands of products. It's been three months since I built the pond, and it's doing great. Like I mentioned, I was a little concerned at first that the "filterless" pump would be a problem. I bought a filter that you can attach to a pump, but it turns out you cannot add a filter to this particular pump because it does not have an intake valve (intake is through the base) so I then bought a second pump that has a filter built in ($114). I have yet to use it. The balance of plants ($50) and twenty or so .15 cent goldfish I got are keeping the pond clear and I have had no reason to change anything, so I'm still using the filterless pump. I figure I'll keep that new filter pump for a backup and for future use if I ever do need to filter the pond out. One warning - don't dig the pit like the instructions say. The drawing shows a stair-step method of several steps. If you do that, predators will walk right in and eat your fish. I did some research and instead only have two levels - one about 10" down, and then the rest that is the 18" deep. Raccoons come every night and can only get their front feet on that first level and won't venture down into the middle, so the fish are safe. (I live in Southern California in a suburb of Los Angeles, and still the raccoons come!) Note: I built an extra section for a waterfall (none of that included in this kit) and I had been unplugging the pond every night at dusk so that the water noise wouldn't attract the raccoons. They didn't find the pond until the one night I forgot to unplug it and they've been coming ever since! The picture shows the roughly 6'x6' pond I built with the kit, and the prefab upper pond portion (not included in the kit) that I haven't finished landscaping yet. I'm thoroughly happy with my pond, the kit, and the customer service. It is a lot of work to dig the pit and place the rock and all, but I love that kind of work so it was fun for me.

Bought this a month ago and would highly recommend.