Last Updated: 2/5/25

1. At 5 pm on 1/5/25, the air temperature was 30 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 37 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 42 degrees F. As snow was due the next day, I hauled out the shorter hose to put water in the big pond. It was too cold, and I am too old to do anything else.

2. On 1/6/25, we got 4.5 inches of snow.

3. The morning of 1/11/25, we got 2 inches of snow.

4. Even though the air temperature had warmed to 42 degrees F on 1/12/25 at 11:07 am, the pond net was covered in a lot of snow so I couldn't get in to clean off the filter floss around the big pump. I did pull out a short hose to add water. A lot gets lost just from evaporation. I also ran a new airline tube and air stone from the Luft pump in the big pond as the aerator stopped working around 1/6/25 as the air/humidity froze up the line.

5. The airline tubing going to the 153 gallon pond also frozen solid around 1/15/25, and I threw in another line on 1/17/25. Both ponds now have their frozen airline and air stone and a spare one that is working.

6. Most years, we don't get a "real" winter but that is not the case this year. The pond net stayed frozen in ice and snow. The only way I could get in to squirt off the filter floss around the pump would be to go in from the waterfall, right into the deep end. I am only doing that in an emergency. So, again on 1/19/25, I did not get in the pond. There are two dead frogs (I know because they are upside down) in the deep end that I can't get to unless I get in. I did temperatures on 1/19/25 at 8:38 am before more rain/snow/sleet would come (about an inch of it). The air temperature was 39 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 43 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 42 degrees F. I pulled a few leaves from the open areas but nothing else.

7. The "polar vortex" dropped on us with lows 1/20/25 through 1/24/25 going into the single digits. The lowest temperature was on 1/22/2025 at 6:15 am when it was 5 degrees F! At the same time, it was 60.1 degrees F in my bedroom with my HVAC running non-stop all night, and not being able to keep up (set to 65 degrees F). The pond frozen all except where the waterfall comes out. The airline tubing (second set of tubing) in both ponds slowed to a tiny bit of bubbles as the humidity in the line froze. They will likely stop completely soon. Luckily, temperatures should go back to normal in a few days. Freezing (32 degrees F) is the new warm!

8. Things started to warm up. I had off work on 1/27/25. At 2:00 pm, the air temperature was 46 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 40 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 43 degrees F. I was able to get water through the 100 foot hose so I could fill the bird bath and add water to the 1800 and 153 gallon pond. The smaller ponds were still frozen and snow topped. They had frozen solid for weeks so any tadpoles, snails, insects, etc. that had been in them did not survive which makes cleaning the ponds easier in the spring as I don't have to sort through for anybody alive. It's sad though.

The 153 gallon pond was a few inches low. The net was still frozen in the 1800 gallon pond where I normally get in but I decided to go in through the waterfall outflow. To get in there, I had to sit on a kneeling pad in the shallow mini "pond," and then, I had to swing my hip wader-covered legs right into the deep end which is kind of disconcerting but only a few drops of water got into the hip waders. Then, I walked over to the pump wrapped in filter material. I removed it. I changed the filter floss. I squirted out the bioballs and lava rock in the biofilter. I could not open the biofilter drain as it wouldn't turn (ice and snow) but that is not a requirement to clean the biofilter. I changed the bag of carbon/zeolite mixture.

Inside the biofilter was one live pickerel frog who went under the grate. There was also one live pickerel frog in the filter floss who I put back. I was finally able to remove four dead pickerel frogs from the deep end of the 1800 gallon pond. Two were ~2", one was ~2.5", and one was ~1.5". I pulled out the replacement airline tubing with air stones and reconnected both aerators to the original lines which had melted out. The humidity in the air had frozen the lines shut when it was super cold. I put additives in the ponds and about a cup of pond salt in the big pond including on the ice/snow at the edge on the net which should melt it (and then the salt would wash into the pond). A bit of salt in the spring helps deter bad bacteria and funguses.

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