Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry Should I lime my lake

I have 100 acre lake. Had some water test with results of 20 acqulinity and 6.7 ph. I have been told that is not to bad for my area but I have seen much higher results on the site.

We did lime 5 years ago with some success.

What are your goals ? Lime will help with production but if you don't harvest enough you may not want to increase production. 100acres is a lot to harvest.

Lime will also reduce daily ph swings and reduce stress. Lime will help improve water quality.

We would like a balanced lake. Now we are bass heavy. My plan right now is to get some feeders and harvest small bass. We have thread fin but lacking small bluegill. Had a electro test done in June showed 87 wr on bass. We do have monster bream.

On a BOW that size, harvesting enough LMB will be a chore. We're talking 20#-20# per acre.............

And, that 20# per acre is an ongoing chore. Never return a bass less than 14 inches to the water.

I know I'm trying to put together a group of fisherman within the community committed to taking and reporting bass catches. Do you think a 20 AKL is something to be concerned about?

20 is low, definately. The recommended range is 20-200. pH could be higher too, but that all depends on what time of day it was taken - with that low alkalinity, it will swing greatly from sunrise to noon to sunset. I'd definately have it on my "to do" list, but further down the list than making sure I got enough LMB removed.

Do you have much water outflow ?

To fix the problem for now (2 years) you would need to add 200 tons of ag lime ? That would likely get you a 10-20 ppm boost in alkalinity. Thereafter 50 tons every 18 mths to sustain. That is without large water outflows.

Do you get a plankton bloom as is ?

Liming would get you an increase in fish productivity. First you need to get the population corrected before you ramp up production. Sounds like not enough LMB are removed as is so why grow more of them?

My guess , and it is a guess , is to do a limited liming (20 tons) for water quality purposes and do some feeding of BG and remove 30 lbs of LMB per acre over the next 12 mths.

We do have some out flow. We are able to sustain shad so I guess we have some bloom. Thanks for the small lime idea I was wondering if it would do any good on a smaller scale. How much does lime cost?

For a cost, call your local agriculture co-op or the places that sell lime to farmers. If you can get a truck near the waters edge, that would be the easiest way to lime it. Have the spreader truck back up to the BOW and let it fly. ewest has some pictures of a truck doing just that in one of his ponds.

Here

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=26407&Number=337961#Post337961

Cost was $550 for 10 tons delivered and put in.