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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Pond Conditions<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading
\nwater temp 52-56*, Air temp 45-70*, pH 8+ which is high for my pond.
\nI 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.<\/p>\n