Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization Lime

Got a bit of insight on this one. I have had the chance to use Calcis in a several ponds and lakes over the last year and what I have found is this. At twice the recommended application rate, I have had some limited success. At 5-10 gallons per acre, I have seen very limited differences in alkalinity before and after. I'm talking about 1-5 ppm increase. (Granted many of these ponds are in the Piney Woods of East Texas where acidic soil conditions are an invisible plague on fisheries. I commonly see unmanaged ponds with 1-2 ppm CaCO3 starting out). At 20 gallons per acre, I have seen limited success, especially if you take the time to mix, dilute, and evenly distribute it over the pond to the best of your ability. I built a homemade mixing barrel and boom hooked up to a 2 inch pump specifically for the purpose. I feel that has improved our results. I have also been burned once or twice and had basically zero change in the alkalinity. (I'm guessing from excessive rainfall washing it out of the pond plus adding more acidic runoff?) From my experience with it, it seems to me that for small ponds, that don't have terrible alkalinity to start, and don't catch a tremendous amount of runoff, it is moderately effective. I have also tracked pH changes before, during, and after application and while it will certainly raise the pH, I have yet to see it cause any fish mortality anywhere I have used it.

All that being said, I still make use of traditional agricultural lime anywhere it is an option.

Also, a pile of lime will sort of form a shell if it gets rained on but it isn't too hard to break it up again and let the rain carry it into your pond especially if you have a small tractor with a bucket.. I do this on our 10 acre Trophy Lake which catches more runoff than we would like in the springtime. It does seem to be effective at somewhat maintaining alkalinity if its already decent. Or at least increasing the amount of time before you have to lime the whole lake again.