The weather has certainly gone downhill from those hot sunny days of the middle of the month. The last week has been much cooler with some rain on most days although it hasn't amounted to anything significant. The month's rainfall now stands at 37.8mm (1.5in) which is around average for August.
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| Temperature & Rainfall Records 18-24 August 2020 |
In the middle of the month, the average temperature was on course for being the hottest August I've recorded but with the cooler weather of the last week and the forecast of cooler temperatures for the remainder of the month, it's unlikely to hold on to that record.
Whilst we were visiting the plot, between the shower,s last week I had to spend some time sorting out an issue with the pond filter. The water flow through the filter is usually pretty high, but over the last few weeks the flow had been getting less and less. Cleaning the filter helped a little but never really returned the flow to the sort of level I was used to.
By Sunday morning the flow had almost stopped completely so urgent measures were needed to sort out the problem before the water quality had time to deteriorate. I cleaned the filter again, but this time it had no effect on the flow. I removed the pump from the bottom of the pond and removed all the debris that had accumulated around the pump. I checked the pump was working before replacing it in the pond and allowing it to sink to the bottom. There was still no improvement. I undid the connection where the water enters the filter and found there wasn't much of a flow which meant that the pipe connecting the pump and the filter was blocked. There was nothing for it but to remove the pipe from the pond and see if I could find the blockage. The pipe runs behind all the plants in the photo above so removing it isn't the easiest of jobs. All this was done between taking shelter from the constant showers on Sunday afternoon.
The fish didn't mind all this activity and thought it was time that they got something to eat. Luckily I managed to find the blockage which turned out to be an old gasket. I'm not entirely sure how it got there though.
Of course by the late afternoon once I'd sorted out the problem the showers died out and it was a pleasant enough afternoon.
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Well done on getting to the bottom of the problem!
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