i have been checking my pond with strips and the ph is at least 8.2 or higher. could someone please explain what this means and what is the reason for it being high?

i added a little lime (2tons or so) and a little fertilizer. my pond is about 3/4 acre.

thanks

check alkalinity level also and pH in morning hours. How accurate are the strips? If not long ago on lime app. it coud have increased PH for a short period of time.

alkalinity was around 60 over the weekend, but it looks lower now. i am not sure how accurate the strips are. the range for the ph strip goes up to 8.2. the higher the level the more red the strip gets. it is fire engine red so i am sure it is higher than 8.

is there anything that can raise the ph besides lime?

it has been about 3 weeks since i limed it.

alkalinity does not change quickly, if your alkalinity is 60 then why was it limed to begin with that is outstanding. I suggest sending us a water smapel of get a county agent to check it for you to be 100% on thresults. I'm not trusting the strips, sorry Dave

Scott69: I am dealing with wrapping my mind around this Ph/alkalinity thing myself. FYI here is what I think I know. Acceptable alkalinity s between 50-200. Quite a variance, but anything 60 and over is good. Adding lime to raise alk. will raise Ph also. High Ph (anything above 8.5-9.0) can be reduced by adding muratic acid, but do it gently and not in one fatal swoop. Ideally alk at 100 and Ph at 7.5 is perfect. A fish's Ph is about 7.4 and the closer you can get your H2O to that reading the better your fish will eat, sleep, grow, propagate and BITE!!!! Also your Ph is absolutely a moving target. It will fluctuate daily (am/pm), sunny/cloudy, temp changes, rain, etc. Better to keep a real close eye on the Alk. and keep it in order than go completely nuts shooting at the moving target (ph).
If you add structure,ie. cedar trees, oak piles, etc., expect your alk and Ph to go bonkers for a few days until the water figures out what you have done to it. Treat your water like a lady: "Listen to her always, pay attention to what you hear sparingly, understand her mood swings, and play with her when she will let you. Life is good if you stay out of the way - your water is much the same." The Gospel according to Jimmydee - heeeeheee!!!

seems like ph is down a little. i havent worried a lot about it recently. water looks good and green and i have fertilized a few times. i get something on the surface everytime i fertilize, i guess this is the bloom?? maybe the grass that was growing around the edges that are now underwater could have caused it to be high and possibly the new stumps underwater.

fish are feed ing and growing well....

Good post jimmydee!

great concept, and she's the mother of yer fish.....although mine's real grumpy w/ an eating disorder....she's lost alot of weight and her kids are gettin skinny.

Keep an eye on her dave hopefully she's just going thru one of those moods.

ric, month after month its been getting worse this summer, hopefully w/ cooler weather and some rain she'l perk up.

and to keep this on track some....scott69, before my pH meter broke i was tracking surface pH on my lady....here's a graph i made:



despite briefly breaking the 10 barrier, the fish were fine and fortunately it dropped to more reasonable levels. the meter was calibrated and samples were measured at the same time every day so i have to assume these were fairly accurate data.

We've been plagued by high pHs for decades.
Source water is 8.3. Once you add a little fert to get a bloom going, it can spike up above 10!
Hardness is usually 120-140 range.
We add pelleted gypsum at up to 1 ton/acre.
It will bring the pH down, but takes some time to work.
And over time, it is now starting to seem like it takes more and more gypsum to have any effect.

Would planting pine trees help out long term? Muratic acid is cheap but you could easily lower the ph too fast and cause a kill.

Been fooling with alum, which brings pH down FAST, but I've got concerns about the long term effects of repeated apps of aluminum.

Have also tried dried molasses this spring, and it does seem to bring pH down, although not as far nor as fast, but probably more benign, long term.

Acetic acid should be a good way to gently lower pH. You can get it by the 55gal drum. It occurs naturally in decaying matter in and around your pond.