Diary of Events 3/25/24

This is just the cleaning list. To see information on the 153 gallon pond's statistics, history, and past cleanings, go to my 153 Gallon Pond page.

I used the 2023 pond cleaning page as a guide to write this 2024 one but did change everything that was relevant or changed. It may look the same but it is not!

Overview of the Day:

On 3/25/24, I cleaned out my 153 gallon pond. I got up at 6:30 am and fed all the animals by 8:40 am. I started hauling supplies out for the pond cleaning at 9:15 am. The air temperature was 38 degrees F at 9:15 am. The winds were light, there was no rain, and it was sunny. It was at 55 degrees F at 1:45 pm. It was not until 10:06 am that all the supplies were in place. The 153 gallon thermometer read 42 degrees F at 9:15 am.

As I am getting older, and my osteoarthritis is worsening, it is hard to get up off the ground even once. Normally, I get on the ground to sort pond slop to remove the animals and plants, and then I get back up. That was repeated some 30 to 50 times every time I cleaned the 153 gallon pond. I knew I could no longer do that. So, I put an outdoor glass table and a plastic table next to each other. I covered them with a plastic birthday tablecloth. I set up a storage container of about five gallons and the lid of a larger storage container that had a lip on the table. I put the containers for the animals, the clock, my phone, my list (where I record numbers of animals as I find them), tissues, and so on right on the table. I also brought over a patio chair so I could sit on occasion. I put the wheelbarrow next to the table for solid waste and dumped buckets away from the work area with the waste water (that had gone through nets to remove solids). Due to these changes, my knees were not overtaxed but I still overworked the muscles in my back and arms so they will hurt for days. I do not know why I did not think of these changes years ago! I used to run to the porch to write down the counts I was trying to keep in my head like three tadpoles and two fatheads and one greenfrog and so on. Now, it was just right there. This might be a problem if it is raining but it was dry, and the wind only blew the paper off the table twice (with something holding it down).

I bail filled three kiddie pools and three holding buckets (one for the adult fish, one for the small fish, one for the frogs). The pond had a huge amount of anacharis and a tiny bit of hornwort this year. I shop vacuumed the water level down somewhat to where I would not just be sucking up water. From there, I hand sifted the entire pond.

When I clean the pond, I bring up buckets and then go sit down on a gardener's kneeling pad but now I was doing it on the table because I finally had to make that change. When I start, there is little debris so I pour it through an aquarium net and then look for 0movement. I hand pick out the frogs, snails, tadpoles, salamanders, and minnows. In the process, I miss some of the snails, tadpoles, worms, and insects. I am sure I did not miss any frogs this year. I am not so sure that I did not miss some baby fathead minnows or green frog tadpoles who were tiny.

At 12:10 pm I went in to eat lunch. I came back out at 12:29 pm. I did not fully empty the 153 gallon pond until 1:45 pm which may have been the latest time ever! Getting old is horrible.

I squirted out the empty pond and used the OASE Pondovac to get all the rest of the stuff out. I did not replace any bricks as they seemed okay.

I started refilling the pond. I added the following additives:
About 1 cup of pond salt (~50% of the recommended dose on the container for ponds with plants), a little bit of baking soda, a partial dose of aquarium Stress Coat, a partial dose of aquarium Stress Zyme, some koi clay, and some BZT. I let the Luft pump aerate and put in the PondMaster filter. I put a small barley straw bale in the 153 gallon pond and one in the 1800 gallon pond.

I continued to fill up the 153 gallon pond to the level it was from the bailed water.

Next, I cleaned the back pond. I netted out the leaves, sticks, and debris. It smelled horrible per usual, and I filled the wheel barrow with the stinking leaves. Half the rocks from the edge had fallen into the pond (i.e. the raccoons dumped them there!). I left the rocks in a pile because I could not figure out the jigsaw puzzle when I was so exhausted. I filled the pond back up.

There had been four pots of plants in the 153 gallon pond. One pot had a live purple flag iris in it. Everything was dead in the other three pots. I repotted the purple flag iris and pulled some iris from the 1800 gallon pond that had jumped its pot and was growing in the gravel. I potted that into a second pot. I only put those two pots back. After the pots were in, I bailed in all the animals and plants waiting in the kiddie pools and buckets. Everyone was in by 3:59 pm (59 minutes later than the year before! Boy, I am getting slow!)

At 4:05 pm, I started regular afternoon animal chores. From 4:58 pm to 5:53 pm, I put up everything from the pond work. Then, I could finally shower after a very long and dirty day.

Plants:

A lot of anacharis!
A few small sprigs of hornwort.

Here are the potted plants:

I started with four pots. One was the purple iris which sits in the small marginal shelf by the overflow (it takes up the entire shelf). In the main marginal area, there were two two gallon pots of purple iris that had died. On the bottom of the pond, there was one two gallon pot that I think also had purple iris last year, and the raccoons had dumped it in the deep end. I repotted the one surviving iris and one from my big pond with fresh dirt, fertilizer, and pea gravel into two pots.

In the 153 gallon pond.

• One two gallon pot with iris on the overflow shelf. Purple iris. Repotted.
  
• One two gallon pots with iris in the marginal area. Probably purple iris. Taken from the 1800 gallon pond.

Animals:

Here is what I found in the pond! I had to hand pick through every bit of slop to get all these animals.

• 90 fathead and rosy red minnows - 8 male fathead minnows, 12 female fathead minnows, 2 female rosy red minnows, 8 juvenile rosy red minnows, and 60 juvenile fathead minnows - This was an absolute record! Last year, there were 28 minnows. I only had one female rosy red minnow last year but I guess she had at least 9 children who got her orange color (fathead color is dominant). The male fatheads were huge and gorgeous.
  
• 2 green frogs - one female, one medium in size
  
• 161 green frog tadpoles - yes, I counted all of those!
  
• A few pond snails - I did not try to save them all just most I saw easily.
  
• 1 dragonfly larvae
  
• Only a few earthworms this year
  
• No mayfly larvae, water striders, predaceous diving beetles, adult salamanders, crane fly larvae, aquatic worms, pickerel frogs, wood frogs, wood frog eggs, salamander larvae, etc. were found.

For the first time in 20 years, not a single wood frog was heard or seen in the spring of 2024. No eggs were laid. This is a very bad sign. I can only hope that some of the immature wood frogs from recent years survived whatever killed the adults, and that they will show up next year.

The photos have not been processed and likely never will be as I have not had the time in a decade.

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