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Robyn's Pond Blog for March 2018

Last Updated: 4/3/18

1. On 3/2/18, a horrible wind storm came through. The winds continued until 3/4/18, getting a little less each time. The gusts on 3/2/18 reached 70 mph. I had four 40-year-old trees come down; two had been dead but two trees of Heaven had been alive. The tree of heaven out back took out my late mother's pie cherry tree, splitting the trunk in half. It also damaged half a dozen other trees and shrubs. The power was out from 6:30 am until almost 5 pm. I got the generator going to run the main pond outlet (pump and aeration). Since the pond net was pulled back off the waterfall area, something like 1,000 leaves ended up on every inch of the surface of the pond. What a mess! I put the green Rubbermaid tub lid back on the biofilter so the leaves wouldn't clog the outflow and pump the pond dry!

2. On 3/4/18, I got in the pond. The air temperature was 45 degrees F with high winds. The 1800 gallon pond was at 44 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 48 degrees F. I hand removed leaves from the 20 and 153 gallon ponds. I didn't bother with the 30 and 50 gallon ponds which are due to be cleaned soon. I moved another three wood frog eggs masses to the 20 gallon pond that were in the 153 gallon pond. I squirted off the main filter flosses. I tried to net and hand remove hundreds of leaves from the 1800 gallon pond but hardly made a dent it seemed.

3. On 3/11/18, I did some pond work. The air temperature was 44 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 44 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 45 degrees F. I didn't get in the big pond. I topped off all of the ponds and put in some additives. I took the green Rubbermaid tub lid off the biofilter again.

I needed three hours to properly clean out the 50 gallon pond. I had one hour. So, first I didn't try to save all the plants and animals. I picked some pond snails, anacharis, and hornwort. Those were the only plants and animals that I saw aside from the potted plants. Second, I didn't repot any of the four pots. I dumped out one that appeared lifeless. After I dumped it, I saw it had a partially dead/alive waterlily tuber in it but just left it there. The other waterlily tuber had leaves. I put fresh gravel on the tops of the three other pots (one lily, two iris). I removed three buckets of leaves and rotted vegetation. I emptied the pond totally, rinsed it, and refilled. When the three pots, and selected submerged plants and snails were back in, I moved some of the wood frog eggs over to the 50 gallon pond. The eggs were falling apart so I can't give a count of how many I moved but at least half of them are now in the 50 gallon pond.

4. On 3/18/18, I did some pond chores. The air temperature was 45 degrees F. The 1800 gallon was at 42 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 40 degrees F. Where is spring? I did the usual. I got in the big pond and removed the filter materials and squirted them off. I removed two dead frogs. One was a 1" little pickerel. The other was just the egg mass and some bones and skin from an adult female pickerel frog who had obviously been mostly eaten and had been ready to lay eggs soon. That was a hard loss.

5. On 3/21/18, we got 8 inches of snow! This was the most snow this season.

6. Spring has forsaken us. On 3/25/18, the air temperature was 40 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 45 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 44 degrees F. By comparison, this time last year, the 1800 gallon pond was at 52 degrees F, and I was feeding the fish. I did not get in the pond this week, just did temperatures and added water and additives. There was still snow on the ground in shady areas.


Continue to the April 2018 pond blog.



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