Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization A question about Alkalinity and PH

1/4 acre pond (more or less), 12 foot deep, sand/clay soil.

I tested my water today and my alkalinity is very low, probably around 20ppm using a pool test strip. The ph on the strip indicated between 7.5-7.8, but when I used my wide range ph test kit it was closer to 9 (thinking that's probably more accurate) I'm going after 500 lbs of garden lime tomorrow and get it in the pond to try to bump the Alk. How long should I wait before checking the Alk level again....and if it comes up sufficiently, will this neutralize the ph automatically or will I have to do something else?

Visibility is approximately 20 inches, but the water has a good olive green color (finally) and I do have some sparse algae on the surface.

If pH is that high, and alkalinity is low, your high pH does not come from calcium.

As for when you'll measure change...It depends on the agricultural lime used....check labels to see what has the highest CCE and how many pound equals one ton of ag lime (these are on the package by law). Pulverized and pelleted lime will be the most finely ground and "fast acting"....if close to a powder, you will see results in days....

I do not think the ag lime will lower your pH.

Hey Rainman, thanks for the reply. I think maybe your post might be incomplete tho (last sentence). The lime I'm going to use is the Soil Doctor pulverized powder. It's supposed to add both calcium and magnesium.

Is this going to help lower my ph or will I need to do something else?

If I still need to do something to reduce the ph, can I use the ph reducing chemicals like you would use in a swimming pool?

The soil Doctor pulverized is the highest content calcium Ag lime I have found...and it's reasonably priced at Lowe's...about $3.40/bg and 10% off for getting 10 or more bags.

Sorry about the confusion on that last line...added "and" by mistake.

That's where I'm getting it. My pond is 66x66 roughly with steep sides tapering down to 12 feet, 12 bags will be just shy of 500 pounds and from what I understand should be an ample amount of lime to buffer this size pond. I can always add a few more. Also considering dumping a bag of Pelletized in the inflow ditch to supplement when I get enough rain to cause runoff from the neighborhood.

I'm still not grasping the ph side if this tho. Will the addition of this lime help lower the ph, or will I need to use something else to neutralize it. I want to get it as close to 7.4 as I can.

I am all aways butting heads with Rainman on this and I mean no disrespect.

Dolomite lime is not a good lime to use unless you have a magnesium problem. All heavy metals are just about impossible to remove from soil let alone a pond. Here in our area our land has lots of heavy metals and adding Dolomite lime to our land will destroy it for years. Its is bad enough putting chicken litter on our land.

What you most likely have is high potassium. It is the most abundant available high ph element after Calcium.

What I would look for an apply is Calcium Carbonate. Find the finest mesh size you can find. Finer the mesh size the more that will be instantly water soluble. Calcium Carbonate will bring your PH down and your alkalinity up in one fell swoop.

If you have a good cement plant close by ask if you can get your hands on some kiln dust. Have it tested. You can't make good hard concrete with to much calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is sucked off the tower at the right temp not allowing it into the cement. This product is high in Calcium Carbonate and 100% soluble. It is like water because it is pulled off the tower when it is a vapor and as it cools it becomes a solid again. Kiln dust is a waste product and is just dumped back into the cement pit in settling ponds. Yes you will be looking at allot of hydroxides in the dust but wow great stuff.

Here is you can neutralize the PH of your liquid manure with kiln dust as you apply the manure you have the ultimate fertilizer for the year.

Cheers Don.

Good info! Thanks Don

Thanks for the added information Don. Never in my life did I imagine having a pond and trying to manage it into something other than a hole full of water could be so frustrating. Do this...dont do that...it depends...dang! I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get a soil test done to make sure I'm being a good little chemist. Most ponds down here just add lime if anything and let be what will be, but most aren't sitting at your front door either.

Mike
Just for gins and griggles why not have a sample of your water actually checked by a professional to tell you exactly what you got. Then go from there. Some full service feed stores deliver ag lime by the ton, we had 6tons delivered and slung into the pond for about 350$, mainly cause we are 20+ miles from their store

To be totally honest here, Pat, this is Mutt pond. I haven't spent a dime on stocking. With exception to a dozen or so native BG, Warmouth and a single LMB, every other fish in the pond was stocked either by birds or Hurricane Harvey.

While the area hasn't been known to flood, it has flooded twice in two years. That reason alone is enough for me to not spend exhorbadent amounts of money on creating a trophy fishery. I'm going to get what I can out of it for the least amount of $$ I can get by with.

I know it needs to be limed because the house I just built sits on top of the dirt that came out of it, and I've still got mostly dirt around the house. The soil is very acidic and needs to be neutralized.

The only feed store in my area caters mainly to the race horse industry, not farmers as all the pasture around us is non-agricultural. Just open fields. To get a lime truck to deliver means buying tons of lime I don't need, therefore I'm bagging it. It won't hurt anything as far as I can determine.

My question was to determine whether the lime I'm going to apply would reduce the ph to a more neutral reading, and if not, what can I do to get it down. Until just recently, it was in the 7s. Lack of rain and a lot of sun has been my biggest influence.

I had an issue with turbidity, which I addressed with wheat straw in floating baskets. Nothing else. My water went from less than a foot visibility to almost two feet with no other influences. My color is good and my fish are thriving. In the almost two years since the pond was dug, I've had 2 BG die.

I just want to reduce the ph without spending an arm and a leg.

I don’t quite understand that if the soil is acidic then y the high ph. Usually the ph would be in the 6-6.5 range. Am I missing something

That does make sense. However, the spike just recently occurred.

As I said, the ph had previously been in the 7s. The main reason I'm liming is because my Alk level is measuring 20ppm. I need to bump it up to buffer such drastic swings. I think the spike is due to not having any rain for nearly 8 weeks. The pond depends entirely on runoff.

As I'm typing this it has started raining, so the lime will have to wait a day or two. I'm going to get fresh readings as soon as I can and see if this rain has had any affect on the ph.

Ok. I've been reading up on calcium carbonate. I see now what Don was referring to is actually ag lime. (The going to a concrete plant part threw me for a loop.) I can get standard ag lime by by the bag at my local feed store for a little over $7/50lbs. Being that my soil makeup is 80/20 sand/clay mix with no rock at all, it makes sense now that I may need to pay the extra and get ag lime instead of garden lime.

However, I'd like to know if anyone in my area, (SW La/ SE Tx) has used garden lime and what kind of results they had, just out of curiosity as their soil makeup is going to be very similar to mine.

Y'all are gonna have to forgive my ignorance guys. Still learning there's a lot about pond management I've got to get my thick skull wrapped around.

On a side note...I just took another ph reading since the rain has let up. We didn't get a lot, and no runoff due to the ground being so dry, but the level did in fact drop to 8 with the little rain we got and almost constant cloud cover since mid morning.

Visibility is 28 inches and still very olive green.

I thought I found a source for Ag Lime. My local feed store said they carried it, but upon further questioning, it turned out to be hydrated lime. So I kept searching. Turns out Tractor Supply carries 50# sacks of Calcium Magnesium Carbonate for $2.99 a bag. In the Q&A section, they stated this was NOT HYDRATED LIME and can be used to balance PH in a pond. I guess someone was looking out for my little finned buddies. Found the right stuff for an even cheaper price. I'll be working near that store tomorrow, so I'm hoping they have 10 sacks.

Does the bag compare to this? If so it will work as ag lime

Hey Mr. West,
Thanks for sending those pics. Especially the second. What Tractor Supply carries is obviously a different brand, but I haven't seen the actual ingredients on it yet. I was looking at the Soil Doctor in a powder form from Lowe's also. Both are Calcium/magnesium carbonate blends. Now I can compare labels to see which has the highest calcium content and hopefully lowest magnesium. I don't think the Mag level will hurt me any as my hardness has been immeasurable on a litmus stick. Biggest difference I can readily see is TS sells 50# sacks for $.50 less than the Lowe's Soil Doctor 40# sack. But if Soil Doctor has higher calcium content, it may still be a better buy. I think I'll only need about 500#. If I need more, I can add some later. I'll know later today.

Mike, it's a good thing you got thrown for a loop on the concrete plant...as Dono said, kiln dust has lots of "hydroxides", Calcium Hydroxide, which would likely kill every fish in the pond unless you knew what you had.

I have asked for, but still never gotten a single empirical study on harmful results from Dolomitic Ag Lime, and considering millions and millions of acre of the most productive farm land has magnesium containing ag lime applied to it yearly, I think it is a bunch of hooey on any concerns...Plus, Dolomite is the suggested Ag Lime to be used....Calcite is second.

Most Lowes stores have a "pulverized" limestone supplied by Soil Doctor....it is very high in calcium and finely ground....only about $3.43 per 40 pound bag

Hey Mr. West,
Thanks for sending those pics. Especially the second. What Tractor Supply carries is obviously a different brand, but I haven't seen the actual ingredients on it yet. I was looking at the Soil Doctor in a powder form from Lowe's also. Both are Calcium/magnesium carbonate blends. Now I can compare labels to see which has the highest calcium content and hopefully lowest magnesium. I don't think the Mag level will hurt me any as my hardness has been immeasurable on a litmus stick. Biggest difference I can readily see is TS sells 50# sacks for $.50 less than the Lowe's Soil Doctor 40# sack. But if Soil Doctor has higher calcium content, it may still be a better buy. I think I'll only need about 500#. If I need more, I can add some later. I'll know later today.

Rainman, I'm glad I did more research too. Especially with my local feed store. Their hydrated lime could have been a disaster.

I see the calcium CCE on Soil Doctor is 95%. My thoughts are that if the TS brand is relatively close I'll still come out ok with it as I'll be getting 20 more pounds for less money.

Thanks again everyone for y'alls input

The Tractor Supply here doesn't carry the brand of lime that's shown on their website...naturally. But they did have something at a higher price. All it says on the bag is Pro Ag Lime, 50# powder. I bought it anyway. Here's why....
CCE = 99%
ENP = 1768#/TON
TNP = 99%
All the other variables were comparable within a few % here or there.

I think even with the higher price I should get a little better bang for my $50. If I could get my phone to post a picture, I'd post a pic of the bag.

Of course it's threatening to rain, so I don't dare start slinging dust right now.

I got the lime thrown out yesterday afternoon. Man, my 58 y/o shoulders, back and legs ain't what they used to be, but it's done. I don't know how you guys manhandle tons of this stuff.

Today, visibility is about 12 inches,maybe more. And the water is starting to get more green again. It looked like coffee with way too much creamer when I was finished. Fish that were on the bed are still on the bed. I did have two floaters when I got home. I'm assuming they were already pretty stressed to begin with. The turtles are enjoying them tho. I'm going to give it the weekend before I check the ph and alk again.

Walking the bank I noticed 3 or 4 small black clumps floating on top. Slightly larger than a golf ball. They looked solid but when I tried to net one out, it just dissolved into nothing. Anyone have an idea what this crud might be? Some kind of algae, maybe?

How long should it take before the water gets back to being green again? Its greenish gold now.

If the water had suspended clay, the Ag Lime won't help much with that issue.

It all depends on the water chemistry as to whether or not an algae bloom will start for you, but if things are good for one, within a week using the powdered, high quality, ag lime would be reasonable.

The black "balls" may have been some form of Bryzoan.

I dont "think" I've got a suspended clay issue, but who knows. The clarity was pretty good before liming and is coming back. That's not typical of suspended clay, is it? Color's just off. Looks more like it did after the Harvey flood, only not as tanic brown. I did a jar test a while back tho and could see something suspended in the water.

I Googled Bryozoan, definitely haven't seen anything like that!!

At first glance it looks like black floating mud and I hadn't seen anything like that prior.

It's been 7 days since I applied lime to the pond. The color is back to its pretty green shade of olive again and visibility is 28 inches using my white coffee mug on a string. Bad news is, my Alk and Ph hasn't been affected at all. Still reading around 20ppm on the litmus stick and wide range tester indicates a Ph of 9 (checked at around 6pm). Hardness is 0. Looks like I've got other issues contributing to my water chemistry.

About 10 weeks ago I built 6 wire baskets and stuffed them full of wheat straw and a piece of Styrofoam to keep them afloat. I know there isn't anyone who thinks wheat has any where near the clearing factors as Barley, but it's what I can get so figured what the heck. Prior to this my visibility was less than a foot. We've had no rain and abundant sun for nearly 8 weeks,so I'm thinking if anything, I should have a lot less visibility than what I have.

If the wheat straw is in fact dispersing hydrogen peroxide, would this be contributing to my high Ph?

Just for "gins and griggles", I've pulled all the wheat out to see what happens. If the clarity diminishes but my Ph gets better, then I'll know what was causing it. If the clarity diminishes but the ph stays bad, I'll replace the baskets and see if the water clears again. At least I'll satisfy my curiosity about wheat straw and visibility.

If my Alk and Ph isn't being calcium driven, what else could it be and how do I fix it?

I called the ag extension fisheries agent for the area and discussed what my pond was doing. He told me to give the liming more time, but I may have to add more, but interesting enough, he suggested throwing sheetrock in the pond being it is pure gypsum and that would help bring my hardness up.

I work for one of those home improvement stores and broken sheetrock is pretty easy to come by so looks like my straw baskets are about to be repurposed!!

See this link. Search here for gypsum. There are several threads. Be sure what you are getting is pure gypsum and not some mix with bad things included. There have been reports of that.

https://srac.tamu.edu/serveFactSheet/112

https://srac.tamu.edu/serveFactSheet/262

Hey ewest. I know after hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike there were a lot of reports of that Chinese crap having a lot of bad stuff in it which our government "supposedly addressed". A lot of homes had to be redone because they weren't livable. I'm not sure where this stuff we're selling comes from but so far, we haven't heard of any of the Harvey recovery homes having issues....yet, but a lot of those folk are just now getting back in their homes.

What I'm going to use is the stickers they use to separate bundles. It's the same stuff, but cut into 3" slats then laminated 4 high. My hopes is that all the paper and most of the adhesive will remain in the baskets so once the gypsum has dissolved I can just pull them out and refill. It's a pretty much limitless supply, and its free.

Some gypsum can have allot of sulfur in it. There was a bad batch of drywall from China in the US that was so high in sulfur that is started to rot the wiring and electrical boxes from the acid in it.

Sugar beat lime is a waste product that you may be able to source out but it can have some nitrates in it.

Cheers Don.

Hey Don,
I'd say that out of the 1000s of homes here that were flooded, it appears this area may be around 70-80% remodeled now. It's only been months since the hurricane, but so far, there haven't been any reports of substandard product...yet.

I'm going to take this process slow and monitor it closely. It's hard to pass up free. Gotta stay on the boss's good side!!

It's been two weeks since I limed the pond. Took a reading this afternoon and got a ph of 7.8 on both a litmus and wide range. The hardness appears to have increased just a tad, but not much.

Yesterday I transplanted about a ton of big river stone and in the process muddied up the shoreline pretty good. Today, other than a thin green film on the surface (pollen, I think) my clarity has increased to over 3 feet, so I'm not concerned about having a suspension issue.

Here's the BUT!!

Even with the clarity increasing, my water has a pretty dark green color. My concern is that I may not have a sufficient plankton bloom to support all the new fry that are hatching. I also noticed a couple of fish that appeared to be stressing (red tails, tail fins ragged, and very lethargic. All the others appear fine. My water is very warm.

How do I determine if I need to add fertilizer and how much should I add to roughly 326k gallons of water? What kind of fertilizer should I be looking for?

As always, any and all suggestions or incite will be greatly appreciated.

I don't fertilize but I do control our water temp as best I can with aeration. I have seen what you are describing with water temp rise. I am guessing you do not have aeration at all.

You may have had soluble suspended acidic material in the water column too. As it reacts with the lime it will coagulate or stick together making the molecule larger and heavy. They will titrate out and sink.

Watch what happens when you get some good wind action or cool snap. Nature is a beautiful thing you just need to observer her. My bet is that your PH rise has locked up acids in your fertilizer and dropped them to the bottom of your pond as balanced food. One good rain and sunny day and you may change your thoughts on water clarity.

I have to admit Don, I love being able to sit at my kitchen table and see those big males doing their thing from 80 feet away, but I get concerned when I see all those fry and not having a good food base. They seem to be doing ok tho. I'm going to just keep feeding and not think about fertilizer. Hydrating the feed seems to be the way to go as it softens the feed up quicker and makes it more attainable to everything. Will probably increase the amount a bit then look into switching to a higher protein feed.

You are correct about the aeration. Haven't gotten that far yet. I have been considering plumbing into my well with a venturi and then running the water outlet to the inflow and let it run into the pond above ground. I'm down about a foot right now and what little rain we've gotten hasn't been enough to benefit anything. By oxygenating the water before it gets to the pond and then the air contact as it flows in may help both my DO and lower the temp, at least temporarily. Tests on the well Ph have been in the 7s consistently.

Just a note that all those yoy BG babies are not supposed to survive. Most have to be eaten or starve with some survivors growing enough. If that was not the case your pond would be overpopulated very quickly with BG. If you have a green tint to the water then there is enough plankton for the yoy BG for now. It may not be ideal but is likely doing just fine for now. This is especially so if you are supp. feeding.

Hey ewest. Yeah, I fully understand that aspect. Between the LMB, BHC, GSF and Warmouth, I think the predation factor is well in hand. Time will tell. I just want to make sure the food chain is healthy. I figured there was some degree of plankton but with the visibility getting deeper by the day, my inexperienced mind tends to get me going sometimes.

Mike I am adding a post from another thread just for info if the situation arises in your water.


For everyone - about fertilization. It is a tool ,see the archive post on fertilization. Tracy one thing that is misleading about fertilization is difference between a fertilization plan/program for infertile waters vs. the use of small amounts of fertilizer as a slight enhancement. The later can be done by experienced pond owners in small amounts to help. Most think that it is an all or none approach that requires full fertilization to be helpful. That is incorrect. The problem is the eyes deceive - most people think that because they cant visually see big changes in productivity that they are not there. I have seen (no pun intended) in tests substantial increases in productivity ( plankton increases of 10 to 15%) that were not visually confirmed. You cant see the change with your eyes. Just because you cant see it does not mean that its not there for the fish to eat .

With water visibility at 36 inches a small amount of water soluble pond fertilizer can be used to keep the bloom at 30-36 inches and not let it drop to 45 inches. Those type refinements often can not be seen with the naked eye view but can make a big difference to the fish. An occasional enhancement (1 or 2 per growing season) by using (depending on the pond and manager) of small amounts ( 1 lb or less) per acre of water soluble fertilizer can be a productive tool.

I am not suggesting that you need to fertilize , just noting the potential if the situation arises for you or others.

Its now June and time in the south to run seine surveys for the first time this year.

Thanks for that post ewest. If i had any inclination toward using fertilizer before, it's pretty much dried up like my grass.

Bought a pool thermometer yesterday and got it in the water. When I said the water was warm, I wasn't exaggerating. At 6pm it read 94 degrees. Visibility doesn't appear to have gotten any deeper, but I haven't measured it. The feeding activity was way off today and I've lost 5 fish since yesterday. Nothing substantial, but a loss is a loss.

That film I previously thought may be pollen is some kind of algae. It's turned green now, covering a good portion of the surface and has tiny bubbles scattered through it. I had a little algaecide left over so I VERY SPARINGLY hit what I could around the edge.

One of my biggest problems is it takes a real strong wind to get any benefit, and we've had as much wind as we have rain. The property is surrounded by trees and the house blocks a lot of any south wind.

I'm seriously investigating a venturi set up on my well so I can get some stir and O2 at least on top. That will let me get the level up to full pool as well. The well has a 1hp submersible pump and I can tie into a vacant 1 1/4" valve to route to the pond. Haven't decided whether to DIY it or buy something online. Lots of good info here to peruse through.

Aeration is a must, but the budget is too tight for that right now.

I talked to my well guy today and got some pretty good info from him. Thought I'd pass it along to anyone who may be thinking about using a Venturi device off of their well.

My pump is a 1hp and draws 8 amps. It is underground so no threat to it ever freezing. The biggest thing I found out is how you want the pump itself to operate...which is continuously. Once you've installed your pipe and device and are ready to start pumping water, you want to set your pressure at the valve so that you maintain between 40-50 psi in the tank. Mine is set to kick on at 35 and back off at 65. Once you've got it adjusted just let it run non stop. Having the pump constantly kicking on and off 1.) Uses more electricity and 2.) Is detrimental to the health of your pump.

Now I need to decide whether to DIY my Venturi or find a manufactured one. That will determine what size pipe I go with.

Any movement of the water is good. Pump , outboard motor even a trolling motor have been used.

I've thought about that too. If I knew I would be able to get it out, I'd back my surface drive into the pond and crank it up. It's got quite a bit of torque if I give her the juice. The side of the pond I would have to back into drops off pretty steep so the angle would be pushing water to the bottom of the pond. Don't know if that's good or bad, but I would think if I didn't run it long, it might help destratify some as well.

I've thought about the trolling motor too. I need to replace the one I lost in the flood. Either would work, for sure to move some water around. I may even supplement the venturi with a TM between injections.

My thinking is this...
If I use the venturi to maintain water level, I incidentally improve my DO, water temp and possibly ph. Then the TM between uses to keep the water moving around.

Do you think that would work...short term anyway?

I freaked out when I checked the surface temp and the thermometer read 99 degrees!!

Tried to feed but what few fish showed up wouldn't hardly touch the pellets. So it was time to take action. The boat (Surface drive mud boat) was sitting right there so I got it started, set it on high idle and dropped the prop in the pond. In less than 5 minutes I had a good current circling the pond and the temp had dropped to 94. Another 5 minutes or so and it was down to 88, so I shut it down. Didn't think it was healthy to drop it too much to fast.

The visibility was naturally reduced to about a foot. I'm sure I increased the DO considerably tho.

Got so excited I've misplaced my dang keys!! Hopefully they didn't fall in the pond...lol. I'm such a doofuss sometimes.

Mike, sounds like you took appropriate action just in time.

Do you think the cooling was due to deeper water mixing, or increased evaporation, or increased aeration?

It happened so quickly that I'm sure it was mixing deeper water. Just how deep it was pulling from I'm not sure. The prop had a large area churning white as it was just under the surface, but no bigger than the pond is the current had to be moving down the slope as well as around the pond.

I can actually run it with half the prop out of the water with no worry about the motor as it's air cooled. 31hp Briggs. She's a beast.

I went out just now and shined a spotlight on the water and everything looked fine. (No dead fish anyway). The surface temp continued to fall over night to 84.

Still haven't found my keys!

See the PM. Folks there are several very good fact sheets on the subject. Here is one.

https://srac.tamu.edu/serveFactSheet/292

Thanks for the Pm ewest. I read through both links. I think what I got from it all was it's better to aerate in the early morning hours more than any time, but that's not feasible in my case. I'm waiting until late afternoon to do anything, which may be a mistake since that's when the DO level is probably at its highest naturally.

I am modifying my method somewhat, however. The motor is running now and I've set it with the prop half way out of the water. It's not moving nearly the amount of surface area as yesterday, but it's spraying water thru the air a good 10 ft behind the boat, so right now I'm mainly aerating the surface.

I'm gonna let it do that for about an hour then I'll lower the prop and give everything a good stir for about 10 minutes. That aught to give them a good dose of O2 a bit deeper too.

Guess I'm going to have to make this a daily routine until I can get an aerator installed. I don't expect we'll get much relief from the heat any time soon. Surface temp was back up to 94 today.

Oh yeah...found my keys!!

Anthropic,
To better answer your question, I can now say it was from mixing deeper water. When I lowered the trim on the motor today, in just a few seconds I had debris and silt boiling up on the far side of the pond. Didn't think that was good to do for too long so I shut it down. That brief influx of current gave everything a good stir so the little bit of dead water should get some air.
I'm able to get the surface temp down into the high 80s consistently just stirring the top layers. I think a few seconds of deep push should be good in the long run. I may be wrong.

Wow. I'm wondering if the tarp idea might help in the afternoons, when temps and O2 levels are highest. Yes, it would reduce air/water mix. But if temps even out from top to bottom in the 90s, might be worth considering reducing the solar input.

Your quick action deal reminds me of Bob Lusk's warning at the start of my pond dream: More acreage isn't always best. Management is more difficult & expensive. I really didn't believe it at the time, and was disappointed that I ended up with "only" about 8 acres of pond instead of 11.

But he was right. The bigger the BOW, the more it resembles an aircraft carrier, requiring more effort to change course & slow to do so. Sometimes too slow to save the fish, as I discovered last October.

As much as my little pond keeps me scratching my head, I can't imagine trying to manage something as big as yours. BOWs like mine, that rely soley on runoff, are challenging enough!!

Your tarp idea has gotten me thinking, tho. No bigger than my pond is, I could easily set 4 t-posts around its banks and stretch a sizeable tarp three or four feet off the surface. My pond is only 66x66 roughly, so I could deploy it either over the middle or almost shade one whole side. It would still get enough sun (I think) to promote bloom, thus O2, but help keep the surface temp down too, so the water was able to store more of it.

My wife is gonna think I'm nuts!!! Lol

Getting back on track of this thread....

Took readings of my water this morning at 6:15. Surface temp was 84 degrees. Ph reading was 7.0 on both litmus and wide range testers and my alkalinity has increased to 40 ppm. Looks like the 500# of lime I put out three weeks ago has made some improvements and my efforts with the outboard aren't hurting anything. Fish activity this morning is VERY CALM. My hardness however, is still 0. Gotta do something about that. Probably look into adding some gypsum (sheetrock) today.

Did you add gypsum?
I'm also struggling with GH.
Slurry?

I did put some pieces of sheetrock in baskets and distributed them around the bank, but so far I haven't seen any improvement in hardness. Without an areator to circulate the water in not sure the effect will be seen very quickly.

They've been down a couple of weeks now and I've not bothered them. Think I'll pull them up today and see how much they've dissolved. May also drop the outboard in and give things a quick stir to mix things up a little.

My PH has been staying pretty consistent so I've not been too concerned about it to be honest.

I have heard about adding a baking soda to raise the pH but I have not tried. Has anyone tried this?