Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry What Pond Parameters do you Test?

I have a small pond that will be stocked soon and I want to learn about water quality management. I have a friend who deals with a lot of saltwater quality tests and he is willing to help me get the right test kits (may even piggy back on his kits, he buys in bulk)...My question is...

What parameters should I consider buying kits for and what ranges do they need to test in?

I have identified: PH, Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and alkalinity. What else?

Water hardness

Water hardness, got it. Is that KH and GH? or just KH?

I'm no expert, but I've done a lot of reading the last few months. I think that makes me a "know it all". ;-) KH = Carbonate Hardness, which as I understand is synonymous with Alkalinity. Its the measure of water hardness caused by carbonate or bicarbonate. KH is apparently the important one when it comes to fish. For the species I've been interested in the target seems to be a KH hardness value of 20 ppm or higher.

GH = General/Total Hardness and shows the hardness caused by other ions present in the water, such as magnesium. This is apparently less important than KH when it comes to pond water chemistry.

Google is your friend, but here's an article that probably explain it better than I can:
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/wkrec/AlkHardness.htm

PH target values seem to be 6.5 to 8. Something I've noticed in my own water testing is that if you have extremely acidic soils/water(like I do), most freshwater test strips only show a PH range of 6.0 and up. I ended up buying the bulk PH test strips from Amazon that cover a PH range of 1-14.

I'm considering a dissolved oxygen meter purchase if I can find a decent one that fits my budget.