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Robyn's Pond Blog for March 2017

Last Updated: 4/7/17

1. On 3/5/17, the warm weather was away; it was 38 degrees F. The 1800 gallon pond was at 42 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 45 degrees F. I did the usual. I squirted the main filter floss which was pretty dirty because it had been warmer earlier in the week. I moved two wood frog eggs masses from the 50 gallon tub pond to the 20 gallon tub pond and another six masses from the 153 gallon pond to the 20 gallon tub pond. The 20 gallon tub pond is the only one that I have cleaned so far. As soon as I clean the others, I will move eggs/tadpoles back over the other ponds. It is nearly impossible to clean a pond when there are newly-hatched wood frog tadpoles (or any kind of tadpoles for that matter) in there. They are just too tiny to remove without killing many of them. They will take a few weeks to hatch and then be slow to grow at first so there should be time to get things back in order.

2. With cold weather here to stay and ponds frozen over, I took two of the wood frog masses from the 20 gallon tub pond outside and put them in the 20 gallon pond inside to hedge their bets. Some may live in one pond and not the other. A foot of snow is expected on 3/14/17 so we will see how much damage the cold and snow does not only to those eggs but my lotus (under a black pot with an aquarium heater) and all the plants that were already flowering or getting ready to do so.

3. On 3/12/17, it was cold, just above freezing by late afternoon. The 1800 gallon pond was at 44 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 45 degrees F. I topped off the ponds and picked some leaves out of the water.

4. Apocalypse? The forysthia, flowering almond (it's pink!), and many daffodils were in full bloom, and we got our only snow of the winter on 3/13/17. It was four inches of hard pack snow and sleet pellets on the grasses areas. Combine that with some freezing rain and winds from hell, and the plants were done for. On the up side, I got my only surprise day off work and was able to write this!

5. On 3/19/17, there was an inch of fresh snow in the morning but most of the new snow had melted by the afternoon. Some of the snow from earlier in the week remains in the shadier areas. Both thermometers in the 153 and 1800 gallon ponds read 46 degrees F. I was due to change the filter floss but, with snow on the ground, I decided to wait. I did squirt off the filter flosses. I removed two dead pickerel frogs, one about two inches long, and the other one was big, maybe four inches.

6. On 3/26/17, it was only about 45 degree F but it had been 70 degrees F the day before. So, the 1800 gallon pond was at 52 degrees F, and the 153 gallon pond was at 50 degrees F. I took both de-icers out of the two ponds; I took the green Rubbermaid lid off the main biofilter; and I removed the lighted green candycanes from the big pond's outlet. I changed the filter floss. I squirted out the bioballs. I had to replace one mesh bag which was torn. That took a long time to hand move hundreds of bioballs. I changed the oyster shell. I cleaned out the 50 gallon pond. For details on that, see here.

7. The goldfish first spawned on 3/28/17. Let the mess begin!


Continue to the April 2017 pond blog.



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