Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry What does testing my pond's water really give me?

I live in southern Indiana and have a new acre pond that has a naturally green tint and visibility of about 24". The pond is 13' deep and has a nice size 3-4' shallow area. I feed twice a day of a total of 4lb. I am going to start aerating next year.
1. I've read that if you feed you shouldn't fertilize is this true? If so should I even need to test the water’s alkalinity?
2. In southern Indiana we have hard water so should I even worry about test the waters hardness.
3. If the water's PH can swing from 6.0-9.0 during a day and we don’t have acidic soil or rain what would testing the PH give me?
4. Sense I will start aerating next year should I even test Dissolved Oxygen or should I test to confirm it’s at lest 5ppm and not to high to slow down algae growth, what ever that might be? I read that in a post on here about aerating.
5. If my pond isn’t feed by a stream and I have control of the water shed I don’t need to test for pollution.
6. Is there any test I should do?
7. If so are there any charts like ones for any other water test that will tell me what I need to do? If not I don’t see what testing the water gives me if I don’t know what to do.

I’ve read all the post and other sites and all I got was a very large swing of readings during a single day and no real way to control it. Especially sense I have a new Indiana pond, feed, and will aerate.
Am I wrong in saying this?

I test water for a living as well as other pond services and I believe you are thinking about right in your situation. I look forward to reading what others have to say.

1. With feeding you should not need to fertilize with your soil fertility conditions providing you want a normal fishery.

2. Your naturally hard water will buffer the pH to a point it will very rarely ever be a problem. Not to worry.

3. Dissolved oxygen will be adequate this year although at 13' deep the oxygen will gone in the bottom layer even the first year with only 24" of visibility. The relatively low amount of organic matter build-up on the bottom will minimize (but not eliminate) the chance of a fish kill for the first several years.

4. Chemical pollution (toxics) testing is not necessary in your situation unless later evidence suggests otherwise.

5. No basic tests for your situation unless you are drinking the pond water.

Your thinking is basically okay so far water chemistry wise; not sure about your other philosophies.

OK I won't worry about the testing for a few years, but on my "other philosophies"

Didn't think I asked

Perhaps we should have the ability to award little horse patooties as well as stars.

Sounds like I'd have five of those!
:p
Oh, well.
Thanks for the info.

Dudley,
Your back!

I've been lurking in the shadows, Ric. Just haven't had much to say until yesterday.

Don't really think you had much worth while to say then either.

I duno it brought a grin to my face!
But then again maybe your right, sometimes it doesn't take much.

I don't know about horse patooties but if they start awarding with BS, Dudley gets my vote as the supplier. I always thought I had the market corraled until Dudley came along. Now, I'm in 17th place with Dudley hogging the first 16.

I come home from work, (the third monday this week) not in a very good frame of mind (ticked off would be putting it mildly) and you guys bring me out of it immediately! First look at the PB forum in a couple of days and I really needed a good laugh but didn't expect to find it here. Happily surprised! Thanks guys.

Glad we could get you out of it, Randy.
You're an up guy, Ric. Always a ready smile.
Dave, you'll always be the King; your post is positive proof.
And Muddy, it's nice to see that you're a good sport. Being ugly to Bill is the equivalent of desecrating Lancelot's shield, and I think you know it. You deserved that "taste-o-the-cat", and I think you know that too.

Dudley, I've still got one of those palatial sunken pallet & tire condos reserved for you in my pond.

The one that's left is permanently shaded by a floating pallet; it's also adjacent to a nice rock bed.

The only bad news is that the rent did go up! Demand is high due to the new crayfish residents in the rock bed.

Being ugly to Bill? You must have misunderstood the situation. I was the one that was being treated ugly. Go read the posts again. I was just stating a fact that his personal opinion about me wasn’t something I questioned and "taste-o-the-cat" is what you got. Oh and I haven’t take none of it seriously, because it was only my 20 something post and how can you make a judgment on that. Sorry but I don’t take crap from anybody unless they can take it right back, and I guess Bill’s being a good sport about it sense he hasn’t posted about being upset.

Sunil,
I say get him for all you can on rent!

Res ipsa loquitur. I hope that I eventually recover from the lashing.
Sunil, I'll lease two units if there is a sublease clause.

Dudley, no rent charge for you, my brother from another mother.

To help clear up some of the "stuffing that is coming out". My original comment that evidently broke the covering was "not sure about other philosophies". I said "you're basically thinking okay" about water chem. I did not want you to assume all your ideas of pond mgmt were "normal" since water chem concepts were acceptable. It is a given that what you do to your pond is ONLY your business unless it affects or impacts a downstream watershed.

I guess some people are quite sensitive..

????
"I did not want you to assume all your ideas of pond mgmt were "normal" since water chem concepts were acceptable. It is a given that what you do to your pond is ONLY your business unless it affects or impacts a downstream watershed."
Is there something that I've posted about that your referring or are you just saying in general people make mistakes without you knowing about it.
"Sensitive" that's me

I don't imagine much good is going to come out of this one, so I might as well muddy the water. I hope this site does not become one where people that "don't take crap from anybody" make issues with every comment brought forward that is not exactly to their liking, regardless of the overall helpful intent of the people here. If you want to see a mix of aquaculture and crap throwing go to www.aquanic.org.

Bill,
I have never done this before, but I have to disagree with you this time. I hope you will forgive me for the correction as you have my utmost respect and admiration. Your generous help and advise were misguided in this particular case.

Sensitive is incorrect.
Arrogrant is much more applicable in this situation!

I just want to know if I'm making a mistake that he sees. I don't know if that's the case or not, but it seems like it is. Sense I've started posting here I've been asking for all the help I can get and that's what I'm asking for here. I defiantly don't know very much about pond mgmt, but I want to learn as much as possible and apply what I can to my pond.

Arrogant is probably a better word. Now that that's been said, Bill is there something or many things that I've posted that you’re referring to? If it's about my geothermal loop in my pond that's something I want more then trophy bass if you could imagine that.

You are "reading" way too much into what I wrote. Don't look so "deep into the waters". Maybe since you are relatively new here you are overly cautious, doubtful or leary?; not sure of the correct adjective.

I try to spend my time and efforts here on constructive pond related things. Very few here including myself are interested in "making waves". My main purpose is to relay reliable and usually tested information about pond mgmt topics.

I wasn't even going to reply after my 1st post because I knew it would lead tomMe spending more time trying to explain my trivial comment. My name kept coming up so thought I better "throw out some dirt that got kicked into my hole". Guess I better be more careful of my words and not use them lightly or causally.

Just a misunderstanding and yes I will be the first to admit I'm overly cautious, doubtful or leery about pretty much everything I don't know anything about. This has its good and bad points.
Thanks for the help from everybody that’s answered my question so far.