Ok, so I have been a little neglectful this past winter due to all the cold. I merely dumped the filters every couple of weeks vs truly cleaning them weekly. Now that it is warming up I needed to do a full pond cleaning. The bradford pear tree is blooming and dropping all kinds of stuff into the pond so getting clear water will be a challenge for a few weeks.
I opened the filter box and gave the filter pads a good pressure hose nozzle washing. There was a ton of muck in all 4 layers and on the bottom of the filter. I rinsed with the hose a good bit then ran the pump to pull in new water and stir things up. I let all that drain out.
I then turned to the pump and gave it a good internal washing. The fines filter got a good backwashing too to open up its ports. Then I dumped all the leaves and debris from the skimmer. I ran the pump with only the bottom drain open for a while to help suck anything left on the bottom.
I replaced all the filter padding and added 1 new sheet. I refilled the pond with about 500 gallons of new water. As soon as the water rises above 60 degrees I will likely give it a potasium permanganate treatment.
Pond Conditions
water temp 52-56*, Air temp 45-70*, pH 8+ which is high for my pond.
I cleaned some of the algae off of the waterfall rocks and likely exposed some mortar. OR my test kit has gone bad over winter. I added a new back of shells to help stabilize the pH. pH should fall with water changes. There is no ammonia yet but I haven’t been feeding the fish since the water temp has not remained above 55* yet. Time to order some new test kits.
I already purchased some Hikari multi-season food so I can begin feeding the fish shortly. They are getting quite large even in my little 1600 gallon pond.
I may need to get my pump reconditioned this fall and replace the diaphragm on the air pump. Of course I’d like to remodel the pond and make it larger but I don’t think the wife will go for that.
