Talked with Tom Warmuth, the guy marketing Calcis for BioSafe. He confirms that 5 gallons of the stuff equals 1 ton of ag lime. Ag lime is cheap, but difficult & expensive to apply. Calcis is expensive, apparently, but relatively cheap & easy to apply. You can even DIY applying calcis, if you don't mind work (heavy stuff).
Tom said that they are working with local outfits such as Windfield Solutions and Lochow. I'll get in touch with Lochow and see exactly how costly it is. My pond still needs some lime remediation with pH around 6.5, alkalinity/hardness in the 40s despite 4 tons ag lime per acre before it filled.
Pondgirl, I don't know if they have distributors in California, but it sounds like BioSafe is pushing nationwide. You might check with Tom about it.
Tom also mentioned that application needs to be pretty even across the entire pond surface to have the best effects. Try to apply during dry spells so it can settle to bottom undisturbed. Apparently Calcis starts working immediately, unlike ag lime. But unlike hydrated lime, tends not to shock fish with too abrupt changes in water chemistry.
Tom pointed out that liming not only helps phytoplankton & plants, it also benefits fish. Better disease protection & superior egg hardiness.
Anyway, I'll check on this and maybe give it a try. Should be interesting...
Last edited by anthropic; 05/02/17 10:10 PM.
