Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry What to Test For: Old/New strip mine pond

BLUF: I located a local water environmental test lab, they charge by the 'test' - I have no idea what to ask them to test?

Background:
I have a 70 y/o 1.75 SA strip mine pond located in East Central Ohio that had great fish in it. It drained, I fixed it, in so doing I 'opened' up about 75% of the strip mine spoil, shales clays etc. that was covered by decades of muck. That spoil is now exposed to direct contact with the pond water.




Prior to any stocking in the 'new' pond I want to ensure safe for vertebrates and if possible dialed in and the stocking will thrive.

There maybe a post somewhere on PB but my searches didn't uncover any.

The Lab charges by the "test" I.e., Alkalinity = $10, Phosphorous = $10, Heavy Metals $17.50 etc etc

What list of "water" tests would you/should I get?

What are acceptable bounds in those tests?

What remediation practices are available for the test - not the amounts just what can be done if anything?

Thanks in advance for any guidance. A link to somewhere that details this would be fine or discussion.
Stressless

Stressless, I'll send you a PM in a minute.

Unfortunately as expected Crescent Pond came back fairly hot - 5.1pH. Getting more tests done in the coming week or so.

Like to know if there are better Liming products for aquatic applications. I want to get it in the low 6's 6.3 6.4.

11'x60'x1100'. 95% confidence level on that volume.

Is there a good calculator for Cubic feet of water or gallons, Crescent Pond is 733800cf or 5,430,000 gallons to move pH like in AG applications?

Thanks in advance -

Stressless.

Stressless,

Here is a link for a study on strip pit ponds in Oklahoma. They calculated acceptable ranges for a huge number of water quality variables.

Even if it doesn't help you on the first step of raising your pH, it might provide you some useful information in the future.

Strip Pit Ponds - Oklahoma

Good luck on creating waters for happy fish!

Ok... asking the other way dint work.

I've found to raise the pH 1 point in surface water say 5.1 to 6.1, one should add 1 ton of AgLime per 1SA of water. -- Does anyone know any different?

Is there an opinion on calcite or dolomite lime?

Some light reading for you. http://fisheries.tamu.edu/files/2013/09/SRAC-Publication-No.-4100-Liming-Ponds-for-Aquaculture.pdf

Alright - Esshup.

Thanks for that - I've been food plotting for 5-6 years so the discussion isn't foreign to me. so it appears that a SA is equivalent to a 'reg' acre and treat it as you would "soil". to get from 5.1 pH to 6.8 pH my desired goal, I'ld add roughly 2T / acre. So I guess it's just that easy?

Note that to get it dialed in right the article you posted gives the formula to use once you know the NV and or the NE (which are different for each lime formulation)

Correct. SA = Surface Acre which is the same as an acre of dirt. In agriculture ponds, they typically aren't as deep as the recreational ponds, so more lime might be needed but it's a lot easier to add more than to take some out.

Okay - so for soil tests on the spoil they have come back 4.7-5.0 at best, the water tested at 5.0 pH and I'm shooting for 7.0 pH. The COA's I took into consideration are the PITA issues to evenly spread crushed AgLime - cheapest by far but a huge labor (factor) to shovel it from container to something to get to the boat, shovel out/off and maybe get it on a plywood thing for a rowboat...

Next cheapest is Pelletized Lime - very easy to spread - plan to use both my and my neighbors quads with their 15gal Moultrie spreaders and

Next is a the powered lime Hydrated Lime which has a 1.27 to 1 pound used ENV and will dissolve/react overnight.

Plan:
Pond is 390 yards of shoreline on on side. We should be able to cover about 140 yrds edge to edge of the pond with the reach of the spreaders and then the rest of 250 yrds we'll get about 1/2 -1/3 covered with the spreaders.

Every 7 yards back the quad to pond edge and spread 2 bags or 80# of pelletized lime. 56 spreading points, that should burn 112 bags, leaving 70 to spread from the boat in areas that can't be reached from land.

We'll then take the hydrated lime (caustic) out on the boat and stop every 40 yards or so and mix 2 bags into the water.

Be VERY careful with the hydrated lime. Change the pH too fast or too much and it will kill fish that can't escape it. Anything on the boat that it touches (especially aluminum) will get chewed up pretty quickly and over time unless you can neutralize the lime residue that is left.

Can you contact the local farm fertilizer place and have them back the lime spreader truck to the pond and let 'er fly?

The lime is inthe water and i wish I hadn't gotten the high cal Hydrated lime. Tried to getrdone mixing prior to entering the water via 5 gallon buckets in the old rowboat.

That lasted 150# - horrible stuff to work with. I had a 3m respirator and it was required. Wound up spreading the last 850# by spreading on the water and rowing it in - very little wind so it pretty much just dissolved. I was in MOPP after trying to jut do the respirator and light clothing.



Made a holder for the spreader that did a good job once I figured out the weight balance sequence- had a few hairy almost catastrophic issues but got the 2 Tons out in the pond spread (the others got spread from the edge but the throw was only about 14'-16'





I put 320#, eight 40# bags of pelletized in this lil' rowboat and me... plus the spreader and battery.... and it worked like a champ. Did that 320# 11 times... nice easy row and then a lil' excitement as I loaded 2 bags into the spreader and got back sitting down.

scrubbed it down afterward and washed it off with much fresh water.

Dang! That was a load of arduous work you performed for your pond.

You might have to retire "Stressless" as your profile name for a week or so until you recover!

Dang, that was a LOT of work.

Gonna have the water checked proper in late May. Will go from there and no fish being added until after I check in May.

Ag or pelleted lime is much easier than hydrated lime and a lot less risky.

Have the soil tested as water always reflects the dirt composition.

Okay one month has passed - the water reached the overflow and the obvious turbidity (if I am using that term right) has increased with the rise in pH.

I had a member contact me and I'll be pulling a water sample to send off next week and post the results up.

Here's the before and after.

Applying the pelletized from where could reach the shore.


One month later.

Been 'away' back at the farm and just tested the pond.

pH spot on at 7.0


Alkalinity I think is low at 21ppm.

Question - What is the "Desired" alkalinity ppm? I have powered gypsum to raise it and add calcium.

From - [url=https://wkrec.ca.uky.edu/files/alkhardness.pdf][/url]

Most aquatic organisms can live in a broad range of alkalinity concentrations. The desired total alkalinity level for most aquaculture species lies between 50-150 mg/L CaCO3 , but no less than 20 mg/L.

1ppm = 1 mg/l. 40 ppm/mg/l is minimum, I'd recommend anything over 50, but the higher the better. 100 would be nice! Our ponds in this area are naturally around 150+.

Think of the alkalinity in a pond like pH in soil. Too low and the organisms can't utilize the nutrients that are in the water. So if the alkalinity is low, don't fertilize - raise the alkalinity instead. If you fertilize THEN raise the alkalinity, you might have too much of a bloom.

Dang Okay, thank you very much.... that's another ass craker chore...

So 50's the min ...

The reason why I say 50 is because the minimum is 40. So you apply enough to reach the 40 mark. Then a few weeks later you test and find that it's in the mid 30's. So you have to get all the stuff together to apply it again. PITA right?? While it might be more work to apply enough to hit the 50 mark, (or higher) it's less work in the long run, especially if you have a flow thru condition.

A battery and an electric trolling motor would save a lot of work..........

Ya -- I'm actually gonna shoot for something like 75-80 for just that reason. May reapply in '23 to try for 100 after a couple months and see where is settles out.

Just went and hand tossed 200# of Ultra fine I had in the barn. PITA. I 'm gonna noodle how to make a slurry pan with the the 4.5GPM pump I have to try pulverized gypsom... hang a intake off the rowboat, pump me and battery with 6-7 bags and a stern board to dump out a 50# bag and wash it in with the pump spray.