Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization Getting our lake to balance

We are preparing our 2012 budget for our lake and would like to come as close to the proper balance as possible. We are in Central Alabama, the lake is 70 acres, 40' deep in several places, and have 6.5 miles of shoreline. In May of this year we tested at pH 6.5, Alkalinity at 34.2 / Today our water tested at pH 6.6, Alkalinity at 26. How much lime should we be prepared to spread in February of 2012?

Are those the natural alkalinity #s (have you added lime before) ?

I'm not sure what you mean by natural alkalinity. The two test results were from water samples taken at six locations 24" deep. Yes we have added lime several times.

Natural = without adding lime. When was the last lime added and how much did you add?

ewest, I have never seen any "natural" alkalinity numbers from our 6 year old lake. 90 tons of lime was added in the early Spring of this year. Many thanks for your help.

Was the 34 before or after the 90 tons went in ?

The 34 was after liming.

Every pond is different ! Soils and water flow through as well as productivity rate among other factors effect lime treatment duration. I have 20 years experience with ours (including their decline rates)and am still surprised once in a while with outcomes.

We have a fast absorption rate ( alkalinity goes up quickly after liming - 2 mths or so to reach its max) followed by a slow decline. It may drop back to where it started in 18 mths when adding 1 ton per acre. Yours looks to be dropping faster than that. My guess is at about 1 ton per acre in 12 mths. But that is a wild guess on just the info provided.

Do you know the alkalinity just before the lime application last May ? Also how long after that liming application was the 34 reading?

Do not know the alkalinity before the lime application. The 34 reading was aprox one month after the lime was put in. I have purchased a pH/alkalinity test kit and plan to take and record every month, so we will have a better record of this.

That is an excellent choice.

You don't have to put in all the lime at one time in situations like yours where the alkalinity is over 20. You could put in 2 truck loads (20 tons) when the alkalinity gets to 25 ppm. Do you have several access points around the lake ?

We have a hilly type topo around the lake with three good wash creeks at the upper end that have truck access. Here was our plan, have a spreader truck back up to the three creek edges and spread the lime in this manner. This would be better than having a dump truck drop a load on the edge of the creeks only to leave us with trying to move it again.
So, we would be putting three loads 30T in this coming Spring.

What about a boat ramp or at the dam ?

Our boat ramp is on our emergency spillway adjacent to the dam. If we dump there and have a lot of Spring rains I'm afraid we might lose lime and the water it has benefited.