Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Liming

From my education I know that the first cm or so is the most active part of a pond bottom. I know that all of the traditional management trends say that lime is the best way to control the PH of the water but not all of the lime is dissolved. Much of the lime settles to the bottom. What kind of effect does this have. I have considered using soda ash which is completely soluble and controls the PH just as well if not better than lime.

PondMD

Good question. Not sure of the answer but here is some info to consider.

As Bob Lusk often says if it can dissolve in water it will. Same for lime. Pond water always reflects the nature of the land it flows through/on. The reason most ponds are acid if they are is because the land/dirt they sit on/around is acid.

The undissolved lime will change the ph/alkalinity of the pond bottom/dirt just as it does for crop land or food plots for game.

Sodium carbonate (also known as washing soda or soda ash), Na2CO3 is a sodium salt of carbonic acid. It most commonly occurs as a crystalline heptahydrate, which readily effloresces to form a white powder, the monohydrate. Sodium carbonate is domestically well known for its everyday use as a water softener. It can be extracted from the ashes of many plants. It is synthetically produced in large quantities from salt (sodium chloride) and limestone in a process known as the Solvay process.
I know Na salt (soda ash) can be used in the pond sealing process. I am not enough of a chemist to know what other effects you might get from adding a sodium salt to the water or how long it aids alkalinity. I have never seen it suggested in the lake/pond mgt publications. I am fairly sure I would rather have the Ca than the Na in biologic processes.
SRAC - https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/112/
Carbonates and bicarbonates are the most common and most important components of alkalinity.
Calcium and magnesium are essential in the biological processes of fish (bone and scale formation, blood clotting and other metabolic
reactions). Fish can absorb calcium and magnesium directly from the water or from food.
However, calcium is the most important environmental, divalent salt in fish culture water. The presence of free (ionic), calcium in culture
water helps reduce the loss of other salts (e.g., sodium and potassium) from fish body fluids (i.e., blood). Sodium and potassium
are the most important salts in fish blood and are critical for normal heart, nerve and muscle function.
Research has shown that environmental calcium is also required to re-absorb these lost salts. In low calcium water, fish can lose (leak)
substantial quantities of sodium and potassium into the water.
Ideally, an aquaculture pond should have a pH between 6.5 and 9 as well as moderate to high total
alkalinity (75 to 200, but not less than 20 mg/L) and a calcium hardness of 100 to 250 mg/L CaCO3.

Here is another source

http://www.ca.uky.edu/wkrec/LimingPondsAquaculture.htm

A shorter and less involved answer to your question of what impact undissolved lime has is...the Ag Lime (dolomite) will greatly reduce the daily pH swings in water...slowly dissolves by chemical reaction when neutralizing acid...a "proper" pond liming in acidic soil areas will remain "active" for 5-10 years between "limings"...

What if you have high PH in a pond and i want to lower it?

You would need to add acid... and a LOT of it. The problem is if you have limestone in your soil, it will simply neutralize and return to a high PH after releasing a lot of CO2.

I have a new brood pond in Athens, Texas. 100' x 50' and 5-6 feet deep. Pond filled up in two weeks from creek, wetlands and rain, but is muddy. How do I calculate how much Lime is needed? Thank you!

I believe the answer you are looking for is in one of these two threads:

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=124005#Post124005

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=283542#Post283542

Look for "jar test".

Rex, thanks for the original posts and Scott thanks for linking them. Exactly what I needed to know.

Here is the best single source for control of turbidity (soil) in ponds.

https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/108/