Originally Posted by CampCobb
I may have done a bad thing over the weekend and now worried about the impact.
I have a nice approx 1 acre shallow water 4' deep (water table) pond with pretty clear water with vegetation and thriving fishery (due to feeding the last 10 mos).

This pond has a cool little "island" at one end that is about 2000 sqft in land mass.
It has quite a few pines and under growth on the ground.

I started a project to clean this undergrowth up to be able to utilize the island.
It then had quite a bit of pine needles and sticks on the ground.

This weekend I lit a match to it to burn it all up. It left behind a gray/black char'd ashy ground (as you would expect, and as I expected).
What I did not realize and anticipate, is what this ash run off would do to the pond during the next rainstorm or two.

So I googled it and now I'm worried.

This pond is a 6 hr drive from my house where I am now. And if I was on site, I'd be scooping up those ashes in a wheel barrow and taking them far from shore instead of writing this.

So what can I expect as far as impact to water quality, water clearness, and fish health, when this ash makes its way into the pond?
Should I make every effort to get over there and clean up before the first rain storm?
I do value this pond, the fishery and the water clarity.


CampCobb

Before you make another trip there, go to any store that has aquarium supplies. Or even a swimming pool supply place. Buy a pH test kit and an alkalinity test kit. Test the water. You want the pH to be as close to 7.0 (6.5-8.0 is OK) as possible, depending on the time of day that the water was tested. See the attached article for further clarification regarding how alkalinity and time of day affects pH.

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/pond-water-ph-info.html

You might have to adjust the pH of the pond. See this article to further explain that process. It saves me time from typing it all out...... https://extension.rwfm.tamu.edu/wp-...Managing-High-pH-in-Freshwater-Ponds.pdf


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