Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Creating Smallmouth Beds

TJ, I bet that under water, with no freezing and thawing, limestone will last a whole lot longer than you do. Granite would last longer than that, but I don't think the time differential is nearly what it would be above ground, above the water.

In addition to the price advantage, limestone will also add slightly to the calcium (hardness) content of your pond water, which is a plus.

P.S. I just used native stone, which was probably better than half shale. I'm sure the limestone will outlast that.

Thanks Theo - that is food for thought considering rock around here is anywhere from $140-$200/ton and I can get the limestone for next to nothing.

Most of the ponds with successful spawning of SMB in my area have limestone rocks of various sizes as substrate. Limestone in NW Ohio can be obtained in at least two grades of hardness, a ligher colored softer type, and darker colored (blue-gray) that is considered hard with very low soluability close to natural igneous rock. There should be no problem as far as the SMB spawning success if you use quarried limestone.

The small amount of limestone that you are proposing to use will not cause adverse hardness in your water. Many ponds in my area use it to completely line the top shoreline down to 3 ft deep. Total hardness in those ponds that are built in limestone based clay soils run around 180-230mg/L total hardness. Total hardness of neighboring ponds that have natural washed gravel (igneous rock) for the top perimeter lining also have similar total hardness values of 160-230mg/L.

Next to nothing is a good price. With everything equal limestone is the way to go.
Otto

Thanks gentlemen - great advice...I can afford to triple my order and still save $$.