Sorry I haven't responded to your posts recently but between work and working on this pond my time has been limited. Thank you all for the info. It has helped out alot. I lost a total of four fish with in days of turning on aerator on so I am lead to believe that you were right Don and DNickolaus. I think it may have stressed them out since I turned the aerator on full blast from the start. I have lost no more since then.
Ewest,
Thanks for the reading material. I have learned a lot from it.
I decided to go with the ag lime. Today I finished spreading 6 tons of it. Boy was that work. I spread about 2 ton by hand before convincing myself to use the trash pump. I used a 100 ft X 20 ft piece of 6 mill plastic on a hill. Pumped water from the pond to the top of the plastic and dumped the lime below the discharged hose and the water took the lime down to the pond. It only took about an hour to do 4 tons this way. I should have tried that before spreading the 2 tons by hand that took me 3 evenings to do.
I do have a couple of questions. How long does it take for the ag lime to raise the alkalinity? Also what is the best way to check it? I have the test strips but I know that can't be the most accurate way.
Thanks for all your help.
