Last Updated: 6/2/25

1. On 4/6/25, at 11:18 am, the air temperature was 55 degrees F. The 1800 gallon was at 59 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 58 degrees F. Due to spawning, the filters were super clogged for days, and I just let them be. The auxiliary pump stopped pumping days ago so I unplugged it. The main waterfall was just dripping. Hauling out the dirty filter flosses was very difficult as they were heavy with the slop that the spawning goldfish had stirred up. I squirted off all the filter materials, put in additives, and topped off the ponds with water.

My big pond has probably 30 pots in it that are supposed to be repotted every few years but most haven't been touched in over a decade as my time and physical strength go down and down. I decided to repot a single two gallon pot of lizard tail. There is another pot that I didn't touch. One pot sounds easy, right? I had to cut the pot off with a utility knife in three places to get the old pot off as it was so overgrown. I fill three two gallon pots and one one gallon pot half way with dirt. I jumped up and down on the wad of lizard tail with a shovel to break it up. I put two two gallon pots of it back in the 1800 gallon pond. I put the other two gallon and the one gallon (not enough room for three two gallons on that pond's shelf which already had one two gallon pot of purple iris in there) into the 153 gallon pond. Not unexpectedly, the two gallon pot in there was upended by the next morning thanks to the raccoons. I just turned it over as I had no time to repot it again. It was somewhat intact. Only ~29 pots to go! I used to be so on time with repotting the water lilies every two years but nope on that too.

When I was putting the lizard tail back, I pulled out a bunch of hair algae covered in goldfish eggs. I stuck the wads in the 20 gallon tub pond with the baby woodfrog tadpoles to help feed them. Now, in the fall, I will have to see if any fry are alive and move them out.

2. I did pond work on 4/13/25. At 3:17 pm, the air temperature was 60 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 54 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 56 degrees F. I squirted off all the filter materials and the bioballs and lava rock. The bags of bioballs were super heavy as they were full of pond slop that the spawning goldfish had stirred up the week before. When I went to open the drain valve which is under a rock, it was full of dirt and ants. I blasted them with the water hose to get to the valve.

When I went to put the filter material back around the auxiliary pump, I picked up the closed diaper pin (I learned to close it while sitting next to the pond), opened it, and proceeded to drop it into the pond which was all stirred up. I had to use my bare hands to blind feel in there to find an OPEN diaper pin! Luckily, I found it and didn't stab myself. I had previously learned to close it when sitting by the pond because I dropped an open diaper pin in there before. The diaper pin closes the filter material around where the water goes out the tubing.

I put three water hyacinth in a hoop over the main pump. I put in additives and topped the ponds off with water.

Earlier in the day, my brother pointed out at the pond from inside. The groundhog was on the main waterfall! He/she ate not only the chickweed and grass growing there but all my watercress! Granted, there wasn't a lot of it.

3. On Easter, 4/20/25, I tried to do my pond work early so I could have a family lunch. At 10:13 am, the air temperature was already 68 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 63 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 60 degrees F. I squirted off all the filter materials which were very clogged due to the goldfish spawning. I put in additives and topped off the ponds. I had not time to do more.

4. I did pond work on 4/27/25 at 12:29 pm. The air temperature was 62 degrees F. If not for the high winds, it would have been nice. The 1800 gallon pond was at 59 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 60 degrees F. I changed the PondMaster filters in the 153 gallon pond. The big pond's waterfall had slowed to a drizzle days before, and I didn't have the time or strength to squirt off the filter flosses after work one day. I squirted off the Matala in the Biosteps filter, and they were the dirtiest they have ever been as that pump was still moving water, and basically the entire pond was being filtered through the Matala while the main waterfall was just dripping. I changed the filter floss around the big pump. It was the dirtiest that I have ever seen it. The slop was due to the fish spawning and more and more debris (mostly decaying vegetation) each year as the pond has never been cleaned (too big to do so for one weak, old hag). The pump intake around the auxiliary pump had collapsed in on itself. I keep things so I put a less damaged used one on because, guess what, they no longer sell new ones, of course! They made them flexible when they should have been rigid so they implode. I changed the bag of Ammocarb in the biofilter. When I was done, the waterfall was gushing again. I put in additives and topped the ponds off with water.

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