Thanks Rainman:
The lake actually belongs to a new client of mine (I have a pond management business in Louisiana & Mississippi). It's kind of an odd situation--it's an old sand and gravel pit on an island with absolutely no access anymore. The pH was about 6 and the alkalinity and hardness were around 7 mg/L. The Secchi visibility was something like 9 feet, which is extremely clear for Louisiana. I did an electrofishing survey--everything was poor.
I called one of the manufacturers of the flowable lime today and talked to them about the product. It's dolomitic (ag) lime, so it sounds fairly safe. I just don't know anyone who's actually used it. It's about the only option for liming this lake--I couldn't possibly get my lime barge to it, much less the lime. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Dolomitic refers to the Stone used in the manufacture and is the most common form of limestone. Hydrated, aka slaked, quick, cake, powdred, lime all come from Dolomitic stone. Ag lime is just a crushed and poorly screened/graded product of the same stone. Granted that Hydrated lime has chemicals added and goes through a heating process to further concentrate the lime, a "Liquid" lime will be lime that is dissolved, at lower concentration, and will raise the PH very quickly.
It may be safer and more cost effective to take bags hydrated lime and place the bag and all in about a foot of water to allow wave action to slowly dissove the lime.
Try a "Jar" test! Make a gallon solution of liquid lime mixed with water and add a small amount of the solution to a gallon of some of the pond water and take ph readings before and a couple minutes after adding the solution. I'd bet the PH will raise immediately. The rapid PH change is what shocks/kills the fish.
Either way, I hope you get a good result.
