Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry Water Testing

I have the ability to test water hardness, alkalinity, Ph, and turbidity, in the power plant where I work. Will these tests be equivilant to the same tests provided by a management service? If so what would be the target results for a fish pond?

Alkalinity and pH are the two most important. If Alkalinity is above 20 ppm or mg/l, and pH ranges from 5.5 to 8.5, you are in great shape. Hardness is less relevant, as is turbidity. Measure visibility with a secchi disk, or a lure, to see how far into the water you can see. More than 24 inches, after water temps rise above 60 degrees, plan to fertilize. Lots of info on this site about management.

Mr. Lusk, Here is the results of my tests, Alkalinity-12 ppm, Ph-6.6 Hardness was 14.
From my experience testing river water which is what we use at our treatment plant Hardness and Alkalinity usually follow each other or have almost exactly the same reading.
With an Alkalinity of 12 that means I need lime, lime and more lime??????
My pond has good flow through how will this affect a fertilization program?

WIth an alkalinity of 12 ppm I recommend 4 tons/acre more is even better. You can not over do ag lime applications. At this rate even with a modest flow rate you may be over 20 ppm for 3-5 years. Have you calculated your retention time?
1. Simply measure your outflow water (gals/min)
2. Calculate your volume number of acre/feet or ultimatley gallons (2.7 million gallons/acft)
3. Divide gallons by gals/min and figure your retention time. (1440 mins/day)
This will let you know how effective your fertilization program might be.
Good luck

Greg,

Do you know where I can get 5 tons of ag lime near Dallas?

I do not, but I'm sure Bob or others will let you know how to get it in Dallas. Here in GA it's $30-$45/ton.

Greg,

I live in GA not TX. I know Dallas GA is small but it's not that small.

Wesley sorry about that. I should know where Dallas, GA is. We killed 11 geese just past there last weekend. I'll do some calling for you, but is there a southern states in Paulding county? Check with someone with cattle most will have there pastures limed every couple of years.

Hello again...

I know I am asking the heck out of you guys..

Just got back my water sample. I am pretty sure why the NH4 ammonium nitrate is up, I fertilized after we leveled the back part and it poured like crazy so pretty sure why this number is up.

How does the rest of it look?? After the soil comes back I will post that to for advice, it looks like I might need lime. Thanks in advance


Solution Report bigger view

Hard to read but it looks like you need lime especially for HSB and to help buffer the fert. effects on the pond. See these 2 links for water quality.

http://aquanic.org/publicat/state/il-in/as-503.htm

http://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm?catid=25

http://srac.tamu.edu/tmppdfs/13452410-464fs.pdf?CFID=13452410&CFTOKEN=70431263

I thought by doing the tests it would determin if I needed fertilizer or if the place was naturally fertile, or does that recomondation come when I get the soil test back. When the soil test come back it will recommend how much lime it could use. Already found a place that will come with a spreader truck, we could get it to 70% of the pond. Much easyer then bags. they told me its really good lime from tennassee.. Like I would know from NJ...

Joey,

My soil analysis report included soil ammendment recommendations based on the type of crops I wanted to plant.