Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - testing supplies

Hello everyone.

We completed a new pond about 2 weeks ago. We dug into the water table with a goal of 10' depth. The soil is very sandy with some clay mixed in. It was s..l..o..w..l..y filling with ground water, then it rained 12+ inches is less than a week. The builder made a berm along the length of the pond to keep out runoff but left the up hill and down hill open. We now have a pond 30 yards wide and 140 yards long. The topsoil is acidic (pH 5.5) and low in available phosphorus and the pond is very muddy. I am pretty sure liming will be needed. I will introduce pond weed soon, then FHM. BG & RES this fall and LMB next spring. I will manage for large BG. The first 15' of exposed bank is subsoil and hard as rock. Not sure what vegetation to plant.

I have worked in a lab and studied limnology. I would like to do my own water testing. Where can I buy the needed testing supplies to help me clear the pond and monitor water quality?

1. Submerged vegetation down to 8ft and secchi disk to 4+ft should keep DO adequate at that depth and usually down to 10 ft with 4 ft of clarity. If submerged vegetation can grow at 8ft, water will be clear enough for plants making DO at 10ft. Submerged veg. competes with Phytoplankton making the water less turbid. As you should know clearer water has less plankton.

2. Measure the alkalinity. With adequate alkalinity above 40mg/L you will not need lime. If alkalinity is low,,, lime will be needed on a regular basis to maintain good alk. for better plankton for food chain.

3. "Testing to determine how much clearing agent is needed first and periodically afterwards." First do the jar Settling Test to determine if suspended solids will settle out during winter and calm conditions. Establishing marginal plants will help reduce wave action that resuspends shoreline sediments. New ponds often trend toward more turbid until a good biofilm develops on the basin. Once the biofilm develops wave action has less affect of resuspending top sediment clay layer, then the water trends more toward clear. If solids settle out for jar test then the water should become clear and clearist of the year coming out of winter at snow melt.

4. "D.O. is an ongoing concern, what is the most cost effective way to check it down to 10 feet?"
Most cost effective is still the test kit Winkler Method. Time consuming but cheap.

5. "not trying to maximize productivity. The goal is reasonable numbers and size of fish in clear water. Fish management through selective harvest until that doesn't work anymore."
One can grow BIG fish in clear water; just not lots of them. Manage the numbers properly, harvest and use predation to minimize overcrowding and remaining fish have will plenty of foods to grow well. Slow growth usually means too many hogs feeding at the trough. Thin out the hogs to match the pond's productivity and remaining hogs will grow well.

6. "binocular microscope to look at plankton and benthos. It would be fun for a while, but does that have any practical value for pond management?" Plankton requires a compound microscope (100X-400X+) and benthos requires a low power binocular microscope 10X-50X.. Both have value if one knows what they are looking at. A 64um mesh plankton net or filtration bucket is beneficial for monitoring the zooplankton diversity and density as the basis of the productivity. Most ponds with water clarity of 2ft to 3ft usually have good zooplankton if lots of copper based algaecides are not used.

7. "Maybe just throw in ag lime until it clears." I would first do the jar tests. Determine solids settling ability. Wind action and sediment exposed shorelines and watershed turbidity will tend to keep the pond turbid despite lime and or alum action.