Last Updated: 2/5/14

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Introduction and Miscellaneous:
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If you have something pond-related that you want to share (information, jokes, web sites, pond secrets and tidbits, something pond-related for sale), let me know, and I will add it to the next newsletter. What topics would you like me to cover? Do you have a question that I can answer or pose to others in the next newsletter?

When I uploaded some new files on 2/11/06, my html file count passed 300. Since I am dividing up some pages, I get more files without much more content but still, fishpondinfo grows.

Fishpondinfo hit 3 million visitors on 2/18/06 since I moved my site there 28 months ago. The first million came after 13 months, the next million after 9 months, and this million after just 6.5 months. Who are all these kooks (sorry, didn't mean you! ;-) ?

Non-pond events for the month of February included getting roaches for my sailfin lizard who had to go to the vet for egg binding and my cat Gino to the vet for cystitis.

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Significantly Altered or New Pond Web Pages; New Pond Photos:
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1. http://www.fishpondinfo.com/myfish/winter2.htm - (URL changed to a new directory in 2014)
I added six photos of my 1800 and 153 gallon ponds from 2/12/06 when we got a foot of snow.

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Happenings at Robyn's Ponds:
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1. On 2/5/06, I didn't do much with the ponds. The winds were whipping around. I tried to get a few leaves out of the water. The 1800 gallon was at 45 degrees F and the 153 gallon at 42 degrees F.

2. A snow storm was coming so I did my pond work on 2/11/06 at 11 am instead of the next day (Sunday) at 1 pm or so. I squirted off the flosses, topped off the ponds, etc. The 1800 gallon pond was at 39 degrees F and the 153 gallon at 35 degrees F (the thermometer was sitting up higher than normal though).

By the morning of 2/12/06, we had 12 to 13" of snow based on a dozen or so measurements. The ponds were snowed in. The larger pond was trapped by the net. I cleared off the electrical outlets, air pump, and the top off the waterfall. I also dug some of the snow from where I will eventually have to pull the net up to get in one day but it may take a few weeks to melt out enough to get back into the main pond. I wore my hip waders to move in the snow and wore my aqua gloves so I could dig like an animal (well, I am an animal but I mean more like a dog) which goes faster in delicate areas than using a heavy shovel.

3. On 2/19/06, it was 10 degrees F in the morning. It was closer to 25 by the afternoon but needless to say, I did not get into the pond. The 1800 gallon pond thermometer was frozen in. The 153 gallon read 36 degrees F. Amazingly, all the snow was gone from the previous week.

4. Normally, I tend to the pond on Sundays but on 2/26/06, my mother and I went to the aquarium for the day. I took off 2/27/06 to do my Sunday chores including the pond. I had to break some ice to get into the pond but did. The 1800 gallon was at 37 degrees F once I broke out the thermometer, and the 153 gallon was at 34 degrees F. It was at freezing with semi-nasty winds. When I went to take out the filter floss around the pump, the pump came off the line. The line is 1.25" "flexible" PVC pipe. I say flexible because after 9 years and water near freezing, it's hard as a rock and has no give at all. I have a hose clamp over it and then over this gray thing that the builder's of the pond wrapped onto the intake of the pump. The gray thing is bigger than the hose, hence, it doesn't really fit. After squirting off the floss and returning with a screw driver to loosen the hose clamp, I got the hose up against the gray thing but not really attached well and tightened it. I sure hope it doesn't pop back off. Before I had the clamp, it popped way too much. If my OASE Nautilus 60 pump ever fails, I have a new one waiting in the basement that I actually bought the adapter for so the hose should be able to fit onto that. The reason I don't change it now is that the pump in there now which works fine, well, the idiots buried the line up under the rocks and deep under the ground (which now has plants over it too) so in order to remove that pump, I will have to cut the electric cord off (it will not pull through) which of course destroys it. While I'm complaining about their genius, they put a near 90 degree turn into the "flexible" PVC when it was built in 1997. I have brushes on lines to clean the tubing but that turn cannot be navigated, period so I can't clean the plumbing.

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Pond Tidbits:
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1. None this month.

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Web Sites of Interest:
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1. None this month.

What's your favorite pond-related web site(s)?
Do you have a web site you want me to mention here?

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