Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization Pond PH, lime, and fertilizer questions??

Hi guys, I’m a new member and also new to managing Farm ponds. I have two lakes one of them is an old sand and gravel pit lake. That is about 10 acres that is very clear and deep and I also have a smaller pond probably 3/4 of an acre that is shallow fed from a swamp and has a pretty heavy vegetation growth this year. I recently did some water test on the big lake the PH was 7.8 the alkalinity was 20 ppm and the hardness test that I ran was 60 ppm. Looking for any recommendations, should I be fertilizing or liming or both any help or advice is greatly appreciated! I have a new test kit coming in to be able to test the phosphorus, magnesium, and nitrogen levels.

I'll bet others will chime in but I think the general rule of thumb is ag lime until you hit 40ppm

SARC 4606 - Pond Water

This link might help as well.

Good luck on the multi ponds!

Thank you for the response. I will definitely read that article! in calling around today to get prices on agricultural lime I’m getting prices anywhere from $65-$75 a ton. Does this sound like a reasonable price?

AgLime, in bulk it's a bit high about $20/T high. For bagged it's fairly cheap. If your pH is above 7 (and that depends on what time of day you sampled it) you may want gypsum to raise alkalinity without raising your pH higher.

There's an entire area for Water Chemistry here - [url=https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=17&page=1][/url]

I got this link from the smart guys on here relitive to pH and lime - http://fisheries.tamu.edu/files/2013/09/SRAC-Publication-No.-4100-Liming-Ponds-for-Aquaculture.pdf Some "light Reading" lol

My 'exercise' to get my pond right is here - https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=545028#Post545028

Best of luck and welcome to the sickness...

If there is a rock quarry nearby....That's where I would start my search for AG Lime.

Or....talk to a local farmer and see if they could suggest a source. It's pretty common in ag usage.