Pond pump replacement and pond maintenance

The pond pump was acting up, so right before I got sick I pulled it out and had a good look, and it wasn't fixable.

So I ordered a new one, then was too sick to put it all together. So  it has been sitting here for a few days. Yesterday B asked if he could set it up if I told him what to do. Fortunately, I had already assembled everything up- and down-stream of the pump, so it was pretty easy. He stuck it all together, I roughly leveled the biofilter, and it was good to go.

I think the old pump had been declining for awhile, they usually slow down before they fail entirely, and the new one is the same model and speed but pumping much more quickly.

When I pulled the pump out to dismantle it, I took that opportunity to dismantle the biofilter and rinse the media, and replace the hoses with new, longer ones. I replaced the hoses because the last time I had to reconfigure things, they ended up a bit short, and because I've never been crazy about the way this particular setup was configured. I bought replacement hoses months ago and have been waiting to have time/energy/weather to get it done. The pump dying was a good time to do it.

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