So this past Monday I dropped off two LMB and samples of water and silt/mud from my small pond at West Virginia University for analysis of water chemistry as well as a check for any heavy metals or other unhealthy stuff in our fish. We've wanted to do this since we bought the farm and are excited that we are finally underway. Our hope is that we can start eating some fish from the pond, especially once I pick up our tilapia from Rainman and get some growth going on with them. Plus, having a snapshot of the water will help me make any needed decisions on changes to help the pond out.

I'll post results when we get them in what should hopefully be another 1 - 3 weeks.

Interesting Todd. Definitely post the results.

It will be interesting to see if the fish have any contaminants. Have you started a feeding program using pellets in your pond or is it all natural forage? Let us know what the results are...

Thanks for the feedback, Jeff and Travis. We're testing for contaminants so we (my wife!) can be assured the fish are safe to eat and the water is safe for the kids and us to play around in from time to time. The feeding has been all natural to this point, but I have been working through a bag of fish feed from Tractor Supply just to see if I can the fish to eat it. It looks like some are slowly starting to take to it, though I haven't seen any bass doing so yet. The funny thing is that we've got a nesting pair of Canada geese sitting on 7 eggs right now and papa goose gets pretty well honked off when we first get to the farm, but we toss him a couple of handfuls of the fish food and he's all buddy-buddy with us from then on! He chows that stuff down, but we can see BG swimming around under him eating some of the pellets that sink. Occasionally they'll hit the pellets on the surface. Most of the time they'll grab a pellet, spit it out, and repeat a few times before either eating them or finally leaving them and swimming away. Been kind of interesting to watch and now when the pellets hit the water, you can see a lot of fish swimming up to them.

Todd:

I had the same feeding behavior when using TSC floating food, but once I switched to AquaMax 500, they got more agressive and didn't spit it out (as much anyway).

Are you buying the 50# bag of floating catfish food, or the 20# bag of gamefish food?

That's interesting, Scott. Thanks for sharing that experience.

I'm using the 20 lb. bag of gamefish food since I don't have any catfish. Of course, the fact that my geese eat the stuff should be a clue that what picture's on the bag doesn't necessarily define what will eat the stuff inside!

No one around here sells Aquamax off the shelf, so I'm going to have to order it if I want to give it a try. I'm not really planning on starting a routine feeding regimen, but it's just kind of fun to see the fish come when I throw the stuff in the water and the kids really like it, too.

please post your results

Will do. They told me to expect results in 2 - 4 weeks and I think that was last Monday, so a little while to go yet. I'm really looking forward to finding out more about the pond. I just did the small one for now as it's the one we really use. I'll probably do the large pond later this year.

Todd:

If you go to the Purina website, they have a dealer search. Find one local to you, and give them a call. Last year mine didn't carry it on the shelf either, but she said "give me a week and it'll be in for you".

Good to know they're quick (potentially). I think the same Tractor Supply is listed as a dealer. Thanks for the info!

So I got my test results back and am not sure what they tell me. The guy from the university said that he thinks things are generally okay for a pond, but I'm not sure that's the sort of answer I was looking for!

This spreadsheet (thanks, TJ!) shows results for my samples of pond water and silt/bottom soil and a LMB. So, who wants to take a stab at helping me understand this spreadsheet? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?

Let's hope it works and the file is attached!

So do any of the experts have any thoughts on these results for me? Is there any corrective action or proactive action that is suggested by the results?

Thanks!

I can say I have never seen that type of report. Is that exactly what they gave you?

It appears to me that you like heavy metal.

Yeah, Eric, that's the spreadsheet just taken straight from the email they sent and posted here. Never having seen any sort of water chemistry (and silt and fish) of any sort before, I'm behind the curve when it comes to knowing what to look for and how it ought to look when I get it.

Based on?

Hey Todd -- if our experts don't have the answers, I think this would be a great time to meet Dr. Ken Semmons since he sent you to the other Dr. Ken. Print out a copy and call him next time you are in Morgantown. Even if he doesn't have the answer, it is always a positive experience when you meet face to face with Dr. Ken.

Ken

Alkalinity is ok but a little low. Could use a little ag lime.

This may help.

Dang! Even I can understand that one! That's a great format and actually sort of what I was hoping I'd see - something that, like an analytical blood test, would tell me what normal parameters are, what my measurements are, and simply tell me if I'm high or low.

Thanks for posting this, Eric.

Thanks for that. I suspected it was on the lower side, too, but it's good to hear from someone who is more familiar with healthy parameters.

That's a good idea, Ken. I'll have to keep a copy in each vehicle and then if I'm up there with some free time, try to drop in on him.

I was reading the chart incorrectly.

I can't see how you could have read it incorrectly, Burger. It's just so clear and logical, after all!

The guy who I coordinated all of this with actually told me that he thought all the heavy metals were at good levels. I don't see the evidence of that, but that's just because I really don't have a solid grasp on what the data is telling me. That was probably our biggest concern, and now knowing it's okay, our kids have been having a blast splashing around and swimming. The FA is another issue, but they seem to have fun with that, too!

Tilapia should take care of that. Where's Waldo??

Todd this is typical gov't work. Lots of work for really not much good info. You need to have your fecal coliform level checked for human health (swimming) concerns. We woudl love to have 39 alkalinity so I think tht is pretty darn good. We will do this in July on about 100 metro ATL lakes. lab charges us about $40 so you might have to pay little more but worth it to put mind at ease (hopefully). You will need to keep pond water on ice until you get to the lab.

If you get it tested email us and we can tell you if high or not. GL.

Regrettably, not coming this year so chemicals it shall be.

Thanks for the input, Greg.

Todd, I may have missed it but how much FA do you have?

If you decide to Nuke it, use Cutrine Plus with a little bit of diquat mixed in. You can get both at Tractor Supply.

Dave, I don't know how to really quantify the FA accurately. At times it seems to be in little clumps over most of the pond, but really spread out. When the wind blows, it gathers up in a continuous mat that probably runs around about 1/3 of the pond, maybe only 1/4, in a mat that it perhaps 10 feet or so wide.

I raked out a bit of it on Wednesday and hit about 1/2 of it with cutrine plus. We're out of town now till Tuesday, so I'm anxious to see what we return to and what the treatment does. Is the diquat for the watermeal, or something else?

Diquat is just another contact herbicide. Ted lea told me to try a little with the Cutrine Plus for FA. It worked very quickly.

Thanks, Dave.