Rainman, thanks for reading that huge post. heres another one to inspire/educate.
Thanks for the advice about lime. I see what you are saying about muddying the water. I was holding off on liming since the pond is filled by natural spring. I should have posted more about the spring in pond history. There is a natural branch that runs alongside the family's property. It runs into my uncle's 2 acre pond and when full follows its natural course through the woods. we dug a ditch to divert the water across our property. In summer months, there is no water flowing into our pond, and the spring is a trickle. but it flows during the spring rains. I dont know what the water turnover is. I havent seen the pond in a couple of months, but in december, it looked like the carp were doing some work.
from what i have read, the pH needs to be buffered before the fertilizer will dissolve. you can lime a pond all day long but if the pH is too low, you just wasted your money. Liming will solve this by buffering pH. so if i lime it, i am confident i could create an algae bloom. I like your idea of massive bass harvest. sounds like fun and that is my plan first. Will probably lime too if cost is right. that way we buffer the water. then fertilize and get an algae bloom which will decrease water clarity, choke out submerged plants, and feed the food chain at the same time. Cant wait to get to work. thanks again.
Bobad,
the spring was dry at that time and before the GC so not decaying vegetation. The pH was most likely a product of animal life producing ammonia and CO2, time of day/temperature, dissolved O2 in the water, and no buffer system. No lime, no buffering of pH. The pH doesnt concern me, it was the low alkalinity. talking with my friend after the testing, i couldnt believe the alkalinity was that low. But after learning of the alkalinity, i accepted the pH measurement. hope that answers your question. Thanks for the comment. This is what he did. From the EPA, Link below :how to test.
Water Analysis Outline
1. Filter through Whatman #1 paper to remove particulates larger than medium size silt (pore size = 11µm).
2. Filter through PES membrane (pore size = 0.22µm) to remove all particulate matter.
Note: the majority of the particulate matter from the sample was located in this fraction; possibly this suggests an abundance of clay particles based upon the Friedman data I included in the spreadsheet.
3. Read pH at 22C
4. Titrate 100mLs of filtered pond water sample with 0.16N sulfuric acid until pH = 4.5 (a) and then until pH = 4.2 (b). Calculate mg/L of alkalinity according to EPA recommendations, i.e. (2a-b)*0.1
http://www.epa.gov/volunteer/stream/vms510.htmli believe that happy bass grow large. so a happy bass has to have food and comfortable environment to live in. bass feed optimally at a narrow pH range. given the fact that my ponds pH is swinging, i think that has led to the stunted growth as well as overcrowding. bass will feed at all pH ranges, but they prefer some over others. we did catch 3 large fish last year, but they were skinny and could have easily been 9-10 lbers if they werent starving. i am going to remove biomass first in hopes of freeing up some food for the remaining fish. in previous years, we did catch several lunkers without having lime in the pond. i think liming will add a few lbs to the lunkers.
for readers that dont understand alkalinity and buffering, heres my best explanation. do you remember making a volcano as a kid? vinegar poured into a paper machet volcano containing baking soda?
same principal, vinegar is acid, baking soda is alkaline. a buffer would keep the volcano from exploding. H+, hydrogen ions/vinegar, produced by fish, plants, etc enter the water in the form of ammonia and decrease the pH, Lime or calcium carbonate(Ca+CO3-) will bind the H+ and form HCO3 or bicarbonate(which is what is in baking soda). there are no bubbles or explosions because the acid and bicarbonate are already in the same water all the time unlike being separated in the volcano until eruption. so it holds onto the H ion as soon as it is produced. therefore, if you lime a pond, you create excess buffer to accept the H ion when produced and the pH doesnt change wildly. youre probably confused now, sorry, my degree is in biochemistry. it is amazing how far we go to catch big fish!
JB
heres the aerial showing water flow and a new pond filling this year
