Hey I'm Eric Triplett The Pond Digger. Today we're in Ventura California
and we're gonna do some annual Spring Pond Care on this
ecosystem pond, and we're gonna walk you through the process. Now this occurs
naturally
in out in nature because you have rain and you have snow
and when that the snow melts out it flushes the natural ponds out with
freshwater rejuvenating them for the next season
in a backyard pond we need to perform this task manually
especially since in a backyard pond we're putting a lot of fish in there,
were interacting with them, were feeding them
and in an ornamental pond like this one,
we have a lot more fish then you would have per gallon of water
out in nature. So this process is really important. Now this particular pond
was experiencing
some string algae, we treated it with some rock & waterfall scrubber
and we got algae under control. Now what we're gonna do
is where gonna drain down the pond. We're gonna thin out the plants,
we're gonna clean all the sludge behind on the rocks in through all the gravel in
that process
and water flush it out and fill it with brand new water and get ready for the
next season
So the first order business is to prepare a holding facility for all the
livestock in the pond. We have some turtles in here
a lotta minnows, we have a few koi. So what we're going is, we're gonna set up
our holding tank
we're gonna pump some fresh water from the pond before stir everything up
and we'll get now, reserve that water and that's where we'll put all the fish
now we're gonna drain the water down pretty low and all the fish will be in one
small area for us to catch easily and they we'll transfer them
into that bowl. So let's get that tub setup ready to go. Alright get
the aerator setup. Let's run and extension cord into the garage right there
and then grab the pump so we can start draining.
and alright we have a holding tank setup
we have some water reserved for our fish and our livestock. Turtles and minnows and so
forth
we have an aerator system in here to keep the water agitated and provide valuable
oxygen
now each season I hear a lot of fatalities with fish and I just wanna touch on
this real quick because
I think we can prevent some of that. Oftentimes
I have a homeowner get a brand new trash can from local hardware store
you know says 35 or 50 gallon trash can, its very tall with a small service area
they put all their fish in there and then they go to work on their pond and
several hours later
they are ignoring the fish and the fish are gasping for air
they've been starved of oxygen and it could be a fatal,
fatal mistake. So what we want to do is make sure we have a larger body of water
with and a bigger service area and you we want to
have an air system in there, so we can provide them oxygen
so we can take our time clean up the pond. So part of our Spring Pond care when we're
drain the pond down like this
we want to take that opportunity to do a real thorough inspection of all the
other components in the pond. You underwater lighting system,
we want to check on all the filters, if you have aerators, or UV's,
or anything like that, this is the time a year where
we go through everything. We're gonna take the pump out
where gonna check on the skimmer components, all the filter pads, this is the best
time of the year so when you do it,
kick off the season, you can rest they relax the rest of the year.
So I've pulled the pump out for inspection. I'm gonna go ahead and take it apart
and clean this impeller out so doesn't get frozen later in the season
Ok so on this particular pump,
This little Alpine 3100 I've taken this
screen off, and this protects the
impeller housing which is in here. I've taken out these four screws
and now what I'll do is I'll give a little quarter turn, see that little quarter turn like that
I'll pop this out, what I want to do is just clean this guy out
you see some sludge kinda building up in here
when that happens in a season and if you don't touch this thing for a couple years
and all that stuff starts to build up and make your pump
die prematurely so we're just gonna clean this out real quick and put it back together
install it again
an old toothbrush works good ta
get in here. So this is a magnetic drive pump or those who you watchin that
kinda want to understand what's going on here, the engineer type
this guyhere is a magnet
and when it sits inside the shaft right here when the motor turns on it spins
this magnet
and this impeller spins and that's what drives the water. So
if there's a pretty small tolerance level in there
when you put it in there is pretty tight so if starts to get some calcium
deposits or algae or just sludge
gunk built up in there, than the impeller doesn't spin as well as a supposed to
as I go to put this guy back together gonna grab a little bit of
silicone lubricant and I'm just gonna lubricate this
o-ring real quick, throw this guy back on there
keeps it nice and soft, these two notches
line up nice and tight.
Then I can go and put this guy back on. Remember its that quarter turn
Here we are
Now I'll just insert my four screws again.
So this piece goes back on
I may as well take the time to open up and check on this ring. This is the o-ring for
our check valve assembly. Give that a quick cleaning
while I'm at it I'll just throw a little bit a silicone o-ring on their
lubricant, throw it in there
that's good to go
up so we're just gonna hang tighten this union
because we have the the o-ring in there
and that seals it off. We'll throw our blue pad back in there
slide in our basket plate
and then our notch right here, is for the cord to go through
and on the Helix Skimmer here, we want to make sure that basket plate is below
these screws right here. Now this is our overflow for when
we have rain and it's set nice and it still has some good teflon tape in there
and we have this loosened right now this is our automatic fill valve
and that's just, and I have it shut off so we're drain the pond
and we'll get this readjusted before we finish up the pond