Hey Forum! This is Debra with Ken's Hatchery speaking to you all. I just pulled a copy of Mr. Wilkerson's test dated 09/15/05 (and mailed to him 09/16/05). My best educated guess is oxygen deprivation, but I can not say for sure because we were not on-site to test for dissolved oxygen. As you all know oxygen can not be accurately tested from a sample that UPS has thrown and tossed around for a day or so. I am going to give you all his results so that maybe we can all put our heads together to help him out.
pH 7.0 (ok)
Hardness 17 (much lower than we like)
Alkalinity 34 (much lower than we like)
Ammonia .24 parts per million (safe)
My suggestions here would be an aerator that not only circulates the water, but also draws in free radical oxygen from the atmosphere (saturating the water if possible {would not hurt at all to have 6-8 parts per million}). I would also recommend raising water overall water quality by adding calcium and bufferin. We have found these two products work best in our ponds, and most of our customers ponds as well. True sometimes these products are absorbed by deficient soil, but 99% of the time we have success. Just adding the calcium improves fish growth (little buggers just don't produce by themselves much, do they?), and the bufferin will help with the overall "stress levels" in the pond resulting in better health and an overall increase in the carrying capacity. Ammonia levels looked great. I make these suggestions as recommendations only, as nothing on Mr. Wilkerson's test would result in direct fish death. As far as his phytoplankton or algae bloom, that is something we commonly see this time of the year with these humid "dog days of summer". Mr. Greg was correct when he suggested this as a potential problem (I am stating from memory only) as it could aid in depleting O2 supply. Here is where we differ though. We have had great success with pond color, or Ocean Blue, (to prevent the penetration of sunlight thus resulting in a decrease of algae and weeds), aeration, and feeding of the fish. We do not recommend adding chemicals willy-nilly so to speak, unless problems are arising. Then the treatment must be catered to the individual problem. We also do not care to much for fertilizer. Having used it in the past, we finally figured out that fish "poop" was actually doing the job naturally. In fact that is the new rage out today. Crop irrigation and fertilization through aquaculture (pumping pond water laced with fish manure onto crops, ingenius!) So we say to color, aerate, and feed. Then let nature take its course. Sounds simple enough but ponds have been around since the beginning of time - we (meaning all of the "specialist" only started screwing them up lately
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Now guys I am but one girl out here hanging on a limb with a bunch of boys in the same tree, but I would value any advice you would offer either in support of my recommendations or otherwise. Let's get Mr. Wilkerson straightened out. Save the Fish!!!
Thank you all for letting me post,
Deb
