Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Fertilization Lime

My apologies if this has been answered. If I need to add lime, as the soil test suggests, is there a safe, non caustic for fish, liquid option? I've added some pulverized AG Lime around the periphery, but the overwhelming majority from a small boat by myself is going to be very difficult and time consuming. I don't think there are any close pond management companies.

Thanks

I'm going to Calcis Pond Lime in my hatchery pond. Yes, it's supposed to be fish friendly, but feel free to correct me if there's evidence I'm wrong.

https://biosafesystems.com/product/calcis/

I am trying a new approach in introducing lime to my pond, I have about 5 or 6 little tributaries running into the pond when we get a gully washer, I am keeping them lined and small piles of ag lime in them to erode into the pond during a rain event. I just keep a couple loads of it piled up in several places around the pond then refill as needed with a skid loader.

Been trying to do it for about a yr now but as luck would have it, we haven't had a whole lot of gully washers in the past yr!

Sounds like a good plan.

Does ag lime slowly turn into a rock when subject to mist or light rains in a dry gully? (I have never handled ag lime.)

I'd love to see an alkalinity test pre/post application - giving it enough time to work and show up in the water test. Maybe part of me is from Missouri, but I have a hard time believing that 5 gallons of the stuff is equivalent to 2,000# of aggregate agricultural limestone.

Maybe they are talking about a different aggregate agricultural limestone, but the stuff I am thinking about is spread by a spreader truck and looks almost like powder.

Cody Note: I tend to agree with esshup. Not enough IMO good or correct pre and post testing were conducted by the users for the benefit of the owner and importantly the ecosystem which IMO is an injustice to the video and observer. I did not see dramatic changes nor significant improvements of test results for what IMO would have occurred with a correctly calculated aluminum sulfate treatment aka alum. . Calcis is a different active ingredient than Aluminum sulfate. Calcis is a liquified lime product and not an aluminum sulfate product. IMO Not saying the Calcis product is bad product it is just the good scientific limnological testing in the videos was lacking by the end users. Just one example - phosphorus both total and soluble were not pre and post tested. 2nd example - no turbidity tests. 3rd no TDS tests (total dissolved solids)

It will get pretty solid but will soak right back up when subject to wet weather and erode when the rain hits it again.

Got a bit of insight on this one. I have had the chance to use Calcis in a several ponds and lakes over the last year and what I have found is this. At twice the recommended application rate, I have had some limited success. At 5-10 gallons per acre, I have seen very limited differences in alkalinity before and after. I'm talking about 1-5 ppm increase. (Granted many of these ponds are in the Piney Woods of East Texas where acidic soil conditions are an invisible plague on fisheries. I commonly see unmanaged ponds with 1-2 ppm CaCO3 starting out). At 20 gallons per acre, I have seen limited success, especially if you take the time to mix, dilute, and evenly distribute it over the pond to the best of your ability. I built a homemade mixing barrel and boom hooked up to a 2 inch pump specifically for the purpose. I feel that has improved our results. I have also been burned once or twice and had basically zero change in the alkalinity. (I'm guessing from excessive rainfall washing it out of the pond plus adding more acidic runoff?) From my experience with it, it seems to me that for small ponds, that don't have terrible alkalinity to start, and don't catch a tremendous amount of runoff, it is moderately effective. I have also tracked pH changes before, during, and after application and while it will certainly raise the pH, I have yet to see it cause any fish mortality anywhere I have used it.

All that being said, I still make use of traditional agricultural lime anywhere it is an option.

Also, a pile of lime will sort of form a shell if it gets rained on but it isn't too hard to break it up again and let the rain carry it into your pond especially if you have a small tractor with a bucket.. I do this on our 10 acre Trophy Lake which catches more runoff than we would like in the springtime. It does seem to be effective at somewhat maintaining alkalinity if its already decent. Or at least increasing the amount of time before you have to lime the whole lake again.

Thanks bassquatch. Good practical application experiences and results from bassquatch. Results appear similar to what I saw in the videos noted above. Calais seems to be one more tool in the pond management tool box. Know the capability of the tool you are using.

Great info. Thank you.

Lime truck from CO-Op.

This is my first post because I was ready to purchase Calcis Pond Lime. However I was troubled with my research on liquid lime products.I found farm data saying for every 1 ton of powdered lime you would need nearly double the amount of liquid. I went and enlarged the label on the Calcis and it reads in Florida and North Carolina you would need 2800 lbs of this product to equal 1 ton of Agriculture lime. I don't know why it would not be the same in the other 48 states ?

Fred185, I am unsure on why this would be the case, short of some odd regulations regarding farm material handling in those states. That would be a tremendous amount of Calcis. While every pond is different and a soil test is the best way to determine the exact amount you need, I have seen decent results from Calcis applied at about twice the recommended rate. 10-20 gallons per acres seems similar to results I would expect from adding 1-2 tons of agricultural lime per acre but I work in a very acidic region of East Texas that may be diminishing the products normal effectiveness. If you have a pond less than an acre or so and no good way to move several tons of lime around, Calcis is likely a good option for you. If you get in touch with the folks over at BioSafe they may be able to give you a better explanation for that disclaimer on the label. And if you do, let us know what they say!