Last Updated: 5/4/26

1 On 4/2/26 when I got home, I found that one of my roosters, Dusty, had passed away. He was perhaps the best rooster that I have ever had. I could pet him and even hug him, and he rarely tried to hurt me. It is too bad that his brothers and father want me dead!

2. As we were expecting lots of rain the morning of 4/5/26, and I had to go out in the afternoon for Easter, I decided to do pond work late on 4/4/26, and then do the rest of the aquariums the morning of 4/5/26. At 5:26 pm on 4/4/26, the air temperature was a warm 82 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 70 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 67 degrees F. I worked until it was too dark to see and then used the porch lights while cleaning up.

Due to spawning, the filter flosses were all clogged. The Biosteps filter was just drizzling. I took out the three pump filter floss sets and pump covers. They were completely full of slop that the goldfish had dislodged while spawning. The laundry basket around the big pond was so heavy that I had to float it to the shallows and then hurt my back to lift it up. It seemed like I squirted the flosses for hours, and they were still filthy. I also squirted out the Biosteps Matala and the bags of bioballs and lava rock in the main biofilter. Since I put the bioballs in new mesh bags with smaller holes, they were not heavy like they were in the old bags because only small particles could get in the bags. In other words, the redone biofilter was not doing as much mechanical filtration which I think is fine because they are there for biological filtration. It is also a lot easier on my back with the bags being much lighter.

I removed a dead 1.5" green frog from the 153 gallon pond that was missing a back leg due to predation.

I put water and additives in the ponds.

3. I had off of work on 4/6/26, and one thing I did was to repot the five gallon pot that had two bunches of water hawthorne and a small waterlily tuber. I potted up two five gallon pots, one for the water hawthorne, and one for the lily. I used dirt that the groundhog dumped out from digging under the porch. I might as well get something positive out of the not-so-little plant devourer. I put the loose, dry clay dirt in empty pots on the porch, and I have been using the dirt when repotting pond plants. I put the waterlily feeder only in the pot with the waterlily tuber because the feeders never seem to work anyway as they just clog up. Each pot got fertilizer, small pea gravel, and then a layer of pond stones (larger rocks) to keep the fish from rooting out the small pea gravel and dirt.

I also removed a two gallon pot that had nothing alive in it. I don't know what was in there.

4. I did pond work on 4/12/26 at 1:11 pm. The air temperature was a nice 70 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 60 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 62 degrees F. I squirted all the filter materials. The floss around the main pump was so heavy and full of slop. I really will have to just put fresh floss in next week because it is so heavy!

When I was coming back to the pond later, I saw a huge orfe that jumped up into the waterfall overflow area, bounced around a few moments, and then bounced back into the main pond. The orfe was wanting to spawn but the other three didn't join him/her at that time. The water there is only an inch deep or so so it is very dangerous for them to spawn but they are stream spawners so it's what they want to do. I have had to move orfe that got stuck a few times in past years. If they get stuck too long, they can die of suffocation (since out of the water), wounds, or predators.

5. On 4/13/26, I discovered that the raccoon had dug all around in an iris pot in the 153 gallon pond and filled the pond with dirt! When I got home from work, I added more pea gravel on top but, when I put it back, there was just dirt pouring out of it!

6. As it was set to rain on 4/19/26, and I was going on a rare daycation, I did pond chores late on 4/18/26 instead after my regular Saturday chores. At 6:39 pm, the air temperature was a nice 70 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 72 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 70 degrees F. I worked until past sun set using lights on the porch and by the pond. The main filter floss was so heavy that I had to drag it to the back yard. I cut new filter floss even though it wasn't due for weeks. It was just too dirty from the fish spawning after a week in the 80's and 90's. I put the dirty floss in a trash bag which I couldn't lift so I dragged it around to the garage. The Matala in the Biosteps filter was way dirtier than it should have been, likely because it looked like the fish had detached the rigid intake from around that pump, allowing more debris to end up in there. So, I squirted three of the four set of Matala. There are 8 sheets in total. I squirted all the other filters and added water and additives.

7. The morning of 4/21/26, it went down to freezing! It was in the 90's last week, and now it's winter again.

8. After trying to arrange some pond repairs, I finally got a guy to come out on 4/26/26. He is just starting his business full time. I contacted half a dozen established businesses. Most never got back to me. One refused to work with me. Another said they were going to come do an estimate for $300 and then ghosted me. Chris was supposed to come on 4/27/26 to work on the pond all day but other obligations came up, and he worked on the pond for three hours on 4/26/26.

The goldfish spawned the mornings of 4/25/26 and 4/26/26 so the pond was kind of a murky mess.

Before Chris arrived, I did my pond chores and preparation from about 9 am to 12 pm. At 9:51 am, the air temperature was 47 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 55 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 57 degrees F. I cut the original PVC tubing that had been attached to the main pump near the edge of the pond since it will never be used again since it leaks underground.

I changed the PondMaster filters. I removed all the yard doohickeys in the work area and the two one gallon pots of water forget-me-not in the overflow. I squirted all the filter materials. I pulled out everything in the biofilter, squirted it, and left it sit in a kiddie pool. I topped off the ponds.

Chris arrived at 2 pm. He dug a trench for new 1.5" flex PVC pipe that I bought from the outlet to the biofilter. He drilled a hole for the bulkhead that I bought. He attached rigid PVC to the inside which goes down the side, across the bottom, has holes in it, and then an elbow on the end. None of the PVC inside is glued so it can be removed for cleaning. He put black silicon around the bulkhead. The bulkhead is flat. The biofilter is round. He said it had to cure for 24 hours! It was the longest 24 hours! He cut the tubing near the outlet to put in a valve so I can turn down the flow. The thought is that since there is now less head due to a larger pipe, the water might flow out the edges. The valve also allows me to keep the biofilter full when I'm cleaning the pump, its filter floss, and the basket. I sure hope the valve doesn't stick like my indoor plastic water valves did rather quickly (I had those replaced with metal valves).

Then, Chris had three strong male friends come over. They had limited time, and they were strong and fast. As such, I didn't get to have as much input and be as delicate as I would have liked it. They pulled the rocks out from the liner area at the overflow, pulled up the liner, held the liner down with more rocks, and put rocks all around. I wanted a sandstone bridge. Instead, they put two large flat rocks in the overflow area and set the sandstone on top of that. It's not techincally a bridge. It took some adjusting to make it stable but it is decidedly not level in either direction. It is also not parallel with the pond and house like the old bridge so I found that disconcerting. With the liner and rock adjustment, the water level will now go up an unknown amount. I have no idea where the low spot is now, and what will happen when the water reaches the new maximum. I have to slowly add water due to having a well, and all the plants have to adjust to more depth. Chris said maybe he can install a bulkhead through the liner at some point to establish the maximum level. I'm concerned that the current maximum level might be in an area that will result in flooding, erosion, and/or dirt in the pond. The low spot may not even be at the overflow anymore.

So, the day was a mix of good and bad. While I am not fully satisfied, I do know that if I had used one of the larger companies, they wouldn't have let me have any input. I got along well with Chris, and we have similar thoughts on ponds. The one thing he doesn't do is repot plants which I could really use.

9. On 4/27/26, I had to tidy up from the day before. I started pond work at 10:29 am. The air temperature was 62 degrees F, and it went up to 70 degrees F later in the day. I sprayed the bags of bioballs and lava rock multiple times during the day to try to keep the good bacteria alive while the filter is off. The water is getting murky. I shop vacuumed out the bottom of the biofilter which was full of sludge and broken bricks. I had to build up some bricks to support the egg crate over the PVC pipe on the bottom. Then, the PVC wanted to pop off because it was not actually touching the bottom of the biofilter. So, I put a plastic cat bowl under the PVC on the bottom of the biofilter! The strangest things will work.

I wheel barrowed the bricks that I had used to try to prop up the overflow to the brick pile and then did the same with the old sandstone bridge. I squirted down the overflow rocks which they had covered in some mud and debris. I rebuilt the rocks around the neck of the biofilter where the work was done. I left smaller, removable rocks where the bulkhead is so I can check it for leaks. I filled in the rest of the ground that was trenched with dirt (Chris had filled it in but I had to finesse it) and topped with fresh mulch. I repotted the two one gallon pots of water forget-me-not in the overflow. Do you know when those plants were last repotted? I do because I have a spreadsheet. 28 years!!!!!!!!!! I added water to a level about an inch higher than the previous maximum which is probably 80-90 gallons of extra water. I will add more water slowly over time but I am not going to try to find the maximum level at this time.

Chris called later in the day, and I turned on the pump while on the phone with him. Water leaks from the bulkhead into the biofilter. It makes a small pool of mud but seems to be limited. Chris cannot return for about 2.5 weeks to put on more silicon. I then turned off the pump. The biofilter didn't drain because the PVC popped off. We have to fix that. I opened the filter drain, and, once it was empty, I put all the bags of bioballs and lava rock back and got the waterfall and steam going. The fish seemed relieved. I had to add more water for the 50 gallons in the filter that went down the filter drain.

I put a mass of watercress that I had raised indoors in an Aerogrow into the stream overflow area. It was mostly spent (gone to seed) but maybe it will take root.

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