Well it’s that time of year again...... Sarah and I..... with the help of our Grandson, cut the jungle down. We are leaving the plants in the pond for now..... let them keep doing their thing until the first hard freeze..... This is fifth winter and the Hogs (That’s what I call them now) are huge. After our first year disaster, we have lost one fish, never knew why, but since none of the other’s were affected we went on..... We have not added any and the rest are doing great..... what I get from this is we have the right amount/ size fish for the filtration and the amount of plants growing in the pond, so I think we have a balanced system. I don’t water test anymore..... don’t do water changes.... add water when it needs it, but what I do is watch the fish they will let you know when things are not right...... less is better