Diary of Events 4/2/18

This is just the cleaning list. To see information on the 153 gallon pond's statistics, history, and past cleanings, go to my 153 Gallon Pond page.

I used the 2017 pond cleaning page as a guide to write this 2018 one but did change everything that was relevant or changed. It may look the same but it is not!

Overview of the Day:

On 4/2/18, I cleaned out my 153 gallon pond. I got up at 6:30 am and finished the morning animal feedings at 8:38 am. I brought all the supplies outside, I started working on the pond at 9:30 am but, then, since ADT showed up to do some work, I was delayed off and on over the next two hours.

The air temperature was 38 degrees F at 8:38 am but it eventually went up to "pleasant" 40 degrees F at 12:34 pm. It was cold and miserable. At least the rain stopped by around 10 am. The 153 gallon thermometer read 45 degrees F at 9:30 am. I bail filled two kiddie pools and two holding buckets (one for the fish, one for the frogs). The pond had a good amount of anacharis. I shop vacuumed the water level down somewhat to where I would not just be sucking up water. From there, I hand sifted the entire pond.

When I clean the pond, I bring up buckets and then go sit down on a gardener's kneeling pad. When I start, there is little debris so I pour it through an aquarium net and then look for movement. I hand pick out the frogs, snails, tadpoles, and minnows. In the process, I miss some of the snails, tadpoles, worms, and insects. I am sure I did not miss any frogs or fish this year. I only found three wood frogs masses with embyros still in them and no little tadpoles from the wood frogs.

I squirted out the pond and used the OASE Pondovac to get all the rest of the stuff out. I did not change out any cracked bricks this year.

I went inside at 12:04 pm for lunch and other things and was back out by 12:34 pm. I finished emptying out the pond by 1:04 pm.

I filled up the 153 gallon pond to the level it was from the bailed water. I added the following additives:
About 1 cup of pond salt (~50% of the recommended dose on the container for ponds with plants), a half teaspoon of BZT, a dose of pond Stress Coat, a dose of aquarium Stress Zyme, and a few tablespoons of baking soda. I let the Luft pump heavily aerate and put in the PondMaster filter.

I then hauled supplies back to the back rock pond. I netted out the leaves, sticks, and debris. It smelled horrible, and I filled the wheel barrow with the stinking leaves. I found no life but I did not sift through the mass of leaves. I put back some rocks that had fallen in to the pond. I filled the pond back up.

I decided not to repot the three water iris. I did repot the two waterlilies. I also potted up some yellow flag iris from the ground next to the pond where it was growing through the bricks.

I bailed the kiddie pools and buckets back in to the pond. I put back all the pots and such. It was cold so I used my hip waders to get in to put the waterlily pots back.

I cleaned everything up by about 4 pm and did some other work outside, hitting the shower close to 5 pm.

Plants:

A lot of anacharis!

Some parrot feather stems (not sure if they will live).

No noticeable duckweed or terrestrial mint this year.

Here are the potted plants:

I started with five pots. One was the purple iris which sits in the small marginal shelf by the overflow (it takes up the entire shelf). In the deep end of the pond was two two gallon pots of waterlilies. In the main marginal area, there were two two gallon pots of purple iris. I repotted the two waterlilies but not the three iris. I potted up some yellow flag in to one pot.

In the 153 gallon pond.

• Two two gallon pots with waterlilies (probably Albata) in the deep end. Repotted.
  
• One two gallon pot with iris on the overflow shelf. NOT repotted this year.
  
• Two two gallon pots with iris in the marginal area. NOT repotted this year.

Animals:

Here is what I found in the pond! I had to hand pick through every bit of slop to get all these animals.

• 6 rosy red minnows (down from 10 the previous year) - I did not try to sex them. This is the least adults ever! One of the fish had brown splotching.
  
• 12 green frogs (6 baby size, 6 medium)
  
• 5 dead pickerel frogs (two 1", one 2", one 3", one too rotted to tell)
  
• 3 clumps of wood frog eggs
  
• ~31 green frog tadpoles; they ranged from tiny to huge (ready to morph).
  
• Lots of pond snails.
  
• No earthworm problem this year, also no mayfly larvae, Melantho pond snails, cranefly larvae, mayfly larvae, aquatic worms, water striders, dragonfly larvae, predaceous diving beetles, ramshorn snails, etc. were found

The photo has not been processed. I only took one to start. Since I have not processed photos in years due to lack of time, I did not bother to even take photos.

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