Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization Ph Levels and lime

First of all I would like to say I am a new member and this site is great.

I have a new pond that is roughly 2/3 acre and about 12 ft. deep in the deepest. I called a fish hatchery to see what I need to do before adding fish, and he told me that I need to check the ph level and make sure it is 6.5 or higher. He said if it is lower, I need to add lime.

My questions are, where do I get a kit to test the ph level? And How much lime do I add if it is low?

Thanks,
Matt

Get a pool test kit or strips that will give a rough indication of hardness and total alkalinity as ph will vary. You should strive for at least 40ppm hardness/alkalinity. This will allow a good plankton bloom in the spring. It would have been nice to have tested the soil before hand and let a truck spread the lime in the pond basin, but you can still spread it around in the watershed. Check with the county ag agent to get the prevailing soil conditions. You can send a soil and water sample to TAMU for evaluation.
The results will determine amount to add.If you are in the piney woods, I would go ahead and get 5 tons spread. You can hardly have too much.

Matt county extension office should test for cheap. More concerned with hardness/alkalinity than ph it controls daily cycle of pH. Burger aroudn here we are lucky to get it over 20 ppm. However Burger is right you cna not have too much. Fish will not die if just below 6.5 but not the best environmnet. LIme at rate of 6 tons/acre if hardness is below 10 ppm.

Burger and Greg can confirm, but IIRC they are talking AGLIME, not hydrated lime.

Welcome to Pond Boss Forum Matt!
You are right, this site is great. You have stumbled onto the best place for help, advice, and sharing your interest with others of the same ilk. Check out the magazine and helpful books too, they have helped me a lot.

2cat is 100% correct, you have found the holy grail of pond forums and Bob Lusks books are very, very helpful. Welcome to Pond Boss Mattfox, we're glad you found us.

Great welcoming job 2cat, sometimes the experts forget that part (not to point any fingers mind you).

Thanks for the info guys. Is the alkalinity the same as hardness? If not, what should my level be for the alkalinity? I am not in the piney woods but Burger said I should strive for at least 40 ppm and Greg said where he is it is hard to get past 20 ppm. How do you raise the ppm, and if it is low like where Greg is then what does that mean for my pond? I am new to having a pond and I dont understand all these levels and I am coming to yall for help.

Thanks
Matt

Theo is correct, AG lime, or ground limestone is slow acting and needs to be added ASAP. It will probably not have much effect on the hardness for a while. Hardness and alkalinity will have very similar readings in a new pond. Hardness is the calcium carbonate component of the total alk. Average ph of 5 or so will be stressful on your new fish, too acid. They were raised in the proper invironment. If the readings are no alk/hardness, which is what I would suspect, then it will not be ideal conditions for the fish. Mainly, in the new pond with small fish, you want to have a fairly dense plankton bloom this spring and summer to support small organizms which the young fish feed on.
You can add probably 100# of hydrated lime(quick lime) in solution all over the surface of the pond to get a quick rise in ph/alk. This will allow the fertilizer that you subsequently add to cause an algae bloom. Do this and test the results before adding fish. Is your pond stained or clear? If muddy, you will need to add alum, which is acid, to clear it. Then add more hydrated lime to neutralize the acidity.
I suggest do a search and find about pond chemistry. We are a long way past just adding fish and hoping for the best in this day and age.
You can also feed a high protein(40-50%) 1/8 to 3/16 inch fish pellet if you do not get an algae bloom soon enough.

My pond is clear (clear to me), I can see down probably about 2 ft. I would consider this clear. Is a clear pond a good thing or a bad thing? Also, the guy at the fish farm never said anything about hardness or alk. shout I call him back and ask him what he recommends? From what yall are telling me, the hardness and alk levels are more important than the ph, I don't understand why he didn't mention anything about me testing for the hardness and alk.

Matt welcome to PB. Go to this link and read pg 16-19 about fert and lime.

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1428.pdf

Matt, the best bet is to go to the TAMU web site. Look up their water testing area. I think it costs $20 and they will send you a full blown analysis of your ponds water. Post the results here for results.
I sometimes use pool strips but their accuracy is questionable. Good testing gear can get expensive. I have a Hach kit and when the water/chemical mix turns pink, you read the thing. OK, just what shade of pink are we talking about?

Thanks for the info. I talked to my county extension agent and she sent me the form to send it off to TAMU. But before I do this, I found a local place that builds goldfish and koi ponds and they said they would test it for free if I will bring them the sample. When I get the results I will post them on here, because I will need some input on what needs to be done.

Thanks to everyone.
Matt

I ordered a little Hanna Checker pH meter while getting some other things. Stick it in and read the number. Accuracy is +-.2 and resolution is +-.01. Only $30 and a lot easier to use than the pool kit, though you need to get 7.01pH and 4.01pH or 10.01pH buffer solutions to calibrate it if you plan on using it more than a few times. Need to do a little dirt pH testing and figured it would work for the pond too.

Also get some distilled water to clean the probe between samples.

Jeff, checking new dirt should lead to some sort of correlation with the ponds alkilinity.

Well I got my results back and they look pretty good to me.

Ph is 7.2

Akalinity is 30 ppm.

Now does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do?

Thanks,
Matt

That is excellent compared to SE. You should not need to add lime with those levels. If you want to increase production start good fertilization program in spring. Read here and in magazine and pros and cons.

Greg sent you a pm.