Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations NEW GUY with 40+ Year Old Pond IN NEED OF HELP!!!

Agree with YS on potential tilapia stocking (May), but gotta make sure those bass numbers are correct otherwise tilapia spawning success will be nil. Tilaps and threadfins could for sure be expensive snacks! Great structure

Guys- I've searched around the net and this site looking for details on this but as far as trash pumps are concerned. I've used them in the past to drain pools, flooded areas, etc but never used them with the intention to use the outflow end as a water jet (think fire hose spraying lime off platform). Most of the outflow hoses have no end at the end of the outflow hose.

Will a generic 2 inch trash pump have the power to spray high volumes of water at enough pressure to move lime off a barge in a somewhat controllable fashion? Is there a special fitting that take the fitting from 2 inch to 1 inch outlet, therefore increasing pressure?

Think bigger - fire hose nozzles:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#fire-hose-nozzles/=lg4na5

Don't restrict the hose down to 1", the nozzle will restrict the hose enough for you.

You can use cam and groove hose fittings on the discharge hose.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#cam-and-groove-hose-couplings/=lg4om8

You can get those fittings from a farm supply store too. Just make sure that the discharge hose is rated for pressure, I don't know what pressure the pump will put out, but I'd hate to see it split on you as you're using it.

I am suggesting this as a possibility, but also as a question for someone who might know...

My experience with trash pumps are that you can put any size discahrge hose on them and they will still work, as long as you dont stop the water going thru all together. A discahrge hose that can take pressure would be more expensive to buy. Why couldn't you use the regular discahrge hose of whatever size that works for you, put fittings on the end to hook up the nozzle, but then NEVER fully shut off the nozzle? Adjust nozzle to give the stream desired. Thus pressure would never build up enough to blow the line?

Like I said, just wondering.......

Would a 2 inch pump be enough for my purposes here? In general, is it the size of the outlet (1-2-3 or 4 inch pump) or the horsepower of the engine that is more important?

I think a 2" would be plenty. If you haven't purchased one yet, I prefer the ones with Honda motors. They have a low oil sensor that might save you a motor.

I have not purchased one. Not sure if I will rent for the day for $55 bucks first to make sure that its what I need or just buy one. Have a particular model in mind that you like better than the rest?

No particular model. I have (IIRC) a 6 hp, 3" semi-trash pump that pushes 16,000 gph. That one is more than what you need for sure. It's moved a LOT of water in it's life!

Another random question for the group... Does anyone have a picture of what 1,5, or 10 tons of lime looks like? Icannot picture what this will look like and need to have a idea inorder to tell the crew where to dump it. I googled the subject but found top soil and gravel pictures that were better than not having anything at all but due to density, rocks didn't provide much clarification at all.

Thanks in advance guys!!!

I got pelletized ag lime delivered a few years ago. I was suprised at how small the pile was compared to what it weighed.

I don't know how powdered ag lime compares.

Powdered lime is a smaller pile. You could easily put 8 tons in a pickup bed.

The pile of lime doesn't look as big as one would think it does... One semi is about 20 tons. It looks like a lot less than that.

IIRC 8 tons fit on a 12' square blue tarp with room to spare. I did some looking on the internet and came up with a figure of 90# per cubic foot.

one more question... Ideally I would cover the lime with a tarp once delivered to keep from possible of rainfall until i spread it. If I cannot align times with co-op, is it a big deal if it gets rained on? Its not going to hardened up to make concrete is it?

What will you be using to spread it?

I've only worked with pelletized lime, spreading it on food plots because I couldn't get the larger equipment in the area to spread the ag lime. The pell lime will clump together when wet like pelletized fertilizer.

I have a tractor with bucket that will load onto large dock that can be disconnected from ramp and pushed around the pond with Jon boat. The use trash pump to spray off dock into water..... That's the plan.....

OK. Now I understand what it'll be used for.

The lumpiness shouldn't affect what you are doing with it. Once water hits it, it'll get soupy, and what clumps don't break down, you may be able to mechanically break them down. (whack them with the back of a shovel once they're wet.)

Update: I've had a busy weekend. Spread 12 tons of ag lime into the pond. Overall, it went well. I would do a few things different but that just comes with the territory.

I've attached some pictures of how we used our dock (which detaches from ramp) to use as a barge to move the lime around the pond. 12 tons of lime doesnt look like much at all. about a 4 foot high pile but damn it is dense material. Real dense. Spread very easily with my new water pump setup. Could have done it even quicker if my dock (which is quite large) had more buoyancy. I ended up sinking one side of the dock with each bucket load of lime drop on it by the backhoe.

All in all, great weekend. More details to follow. Just wanted to check in.
Will

Well done. I have used the same setup minus the backhoe.

Looks good! It IS dense, isn't it? 12 tons makes a pretty small pile for what it weighs.

It's amazing how heavy that stuff is. I probably should have applied more per acre but didn't want to bite off more than I could chew and get myself into a expensive mess.


Any suggestions moving forward? How long does it take to reflect in the water soil test?

Will it take effect in time for the first fertilization of the year?