Recreational Pond Testing

"Bob Adkins" wrote in message
...

Hi,

In anticipation of finishing my 1.4 acre recreational pond sometimes this
decade, I need some recommendations on instruments and test kits.

I guess my most critical tests will be oxygen and Ph. However, I would be
interested in testing things of lesser importance just for my own
education.

I currently only test for pH, Nitrite, ammonia, and salt.

BV.

Hi Bob,

You have to understand that even if you detect high levels of
something with that much water there's not much you can do. However, you
need to test the PH and add AG lime if the PH is 7.0. If you are building
the pond for fishing you'll need a "Secchi" disk which will tell you how
much algae you have in the water. It's a disk on a chain that you place at
18" deep in the water. If you can see it you add fertilizer to a point where
you cant see the disk anymore. Adding fert will not increase the number of
fish in your pond but will increase the current fishes sizes. Normally you
add (1) 50 pond bag per 1 acres per month. If your pond receives it's water
from run off from multiple areas I would buy a phosphate test kit and test
the inflow water. Anything with a high amount of phosphate in the water will
result in algae in your pond. Typical sources are run off from farms
ESPECIALLY diary/cow farms. I'd make ditches if you can to divert the water.
Nitrite and ammonia are pointless to test since there's nothing you can do
to about it and they don't jump up and down like they do in a koi pond or
aquarium. O2 test kit would be good too but only if you can get power to the
pond to do something about a low O2 condition (i.e. fountain). Otherwise
it's one of those "cant change it so why bother testing" things. Temperature
probes are good for when you stock fish and to know when to expect spawning.
I use one of those digital house thermometers for $10.00 that have an little
10' cable with "outside" temp probe on the end. The temp probe is incased
with plastic so it does well in a water situation.

Sam

"Bob Adkins" wrote in message
...

Hi,

In anticipation of finishing my 1.4 acre recreational pond sometimes this
decade, I need some recommendations on instruments and test kits.

I guess my most critical tests will be oxygen and Ph. However, I would be
interested in testing things of lesser importance just for my own
education.

Thanks in advance,

Bob