Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Liming in Wisconsin

Hi guys,

I'm new to the forum but have been reading quite a bit here. My family recently bought some property in Northern Wisconsin with a 5 acre lake/pond. Unfortunately we've come to find that its quite acidic (pH 5.5) and its lacking fish. We had a lake study done by a local pond management company which I have attached (I think I did it right). The report seems pretty pessimistic about establishing a healthy fishery due to the lake conditions. I was wondering if Liming would be a viable solution for the problem we have? And if so how much should we apply?

Thanks,

Dan

How much lime does it take to neutralize a gallon of your lake's water?

Have not tried that. How do you recommend doing that? Take a bucket of just water and add lime til a pH of 7 is achieved? Or water plus some of the muck bottom?

I have no idea, but am very interested in the opinion of the company that did your survey. Since you have a constant influx of tannic acid I would imagine on a lake that size you would need more frequent and much larger applications.

I have seen small ponds here that are totally surrounded by pines, and through constant deposit of pine needles the ph is acidic and the pond is essentially devoid of fish

Let's wait for the experts

I also think most of the experts
Would disagree with stocking your forage base at the same time as your predators, but were getting ahead of ourselves.

Update:

We dumped 45 tons of lime in the water and it seems to have worked. We bought an old pontoon boat and rented a bobcat and did the liming ourselves. We loaded a scoop of lime at a time and then washed it off the front of the boat with a trash pump. We tried to work a grid pattern to apply it as evenly add possible to the whole lake.

Before liming according to the lake report we were at a pH of 5.5

4 Weeks later i'm happy to report that we are up to 6.5

ph. swings widely on a diurnal basis. Alkalinity is the measure to note, At 24 pre lime you have a base to work from. It is low but manageable if you don't have high water turnover (flow) through the pond. Lime applications have a small initial effect (a few ppm increase) followed by a longer term bell curve result. Alkalinity will jump a few points to start and continue to clime for a period of mths to a couple years and then start a slow decline. The shape and duration of the curve will depend on how much lime you put in and the condition of the water.

Interesting report btw - some good data noted. You will need to set goals and stock fish.

What is the most accurate and or cost effective way to test the alkalinity? What do you recommend?

Thanks,

Dan

Most county agents can do it for you. A water/soil test gives a good baseline and is inexpensive. A simple test kit is under $50. Hatch has them as do others.