It pays to check your plumbing circuits every now and then to make sure they can stand alone if necessary. Yesterday while cleaning the pond I turned off the line to the bio-filter and let the jets continue to circulate. There was one joint not glued well or possibly not at all and it could not handle the pressure and came apart. Fortunately this happened when I had time to deal with it on a relatively warm day. Had this happened on a freezing day I am not sure what I would have done. Replaced about $6 in parts to make it all work again.
In addition to my normal weekly cleaning process I removed about 1/2 the hyacinth and cleaned out the veggie filter, removing a bunch of leaves and sludge. It behaves as a settlement chamber. I guess the hyacinth and surrounding trees were adding to the debris but the fine tangle of roots and plants kept it in the veggie filter. I should probably muck vac it out once in a while.
I am currently studying traditional Japanese joinery in preparation for building my fence around the pond and a faux well box to hide the bio-filter. More to come on that later.
