|
Basic ways you can test your pond to see if treatments are
responding in your pond. Smell, Clarity and Sedimentation Reduction.
Keep a monthly chart to gauge your ponds progress.
1. Smell Test
Go out from the shore 5 to 6 feet into the water. Lift off from the top of the sedimentation.
(no more than an inch down from the top of the sedimentation) Bring the sedimentation to the surface. The smell should be
kind of earthy. What you smell is aerobic bacteria; the good bacteria. Next, take a sample from the very bottom of the sediment,
just above the hardpan. The smell should be strong and foul. What you will smell will be anaerobic bacteria, the bad stuff.
Treatment with Enzymes and Bacteria will cause the top layer of aerobic bacteria to slowly
grow deeper down. Aerobic bacteria is oxygen based bacteria beneficial to the balancing of the pond water. In earth bound
ponds, the sedimentation at the bottom of the pond is the true digestion center, just like our stomach is our digestion center.
Aerobic sedimentation is the biological filtration where organics are absorbed and where indigenous bacteria grows.
2. Clarity
Using a yard stick, at the beginning area of 1 inch, use a red or yellow marking pen and color
in the first 1/2 inch on the stick. This will be easy to see when you lower the stick into the water. When you can no longer
see the colored mark, your measurement of depth will be at the water line on the stick.
Many earth bottom ponds will remain cloudy due to the hardpan debris constantly going back
into suspension, making the water cloudy.
3. Sedimentation
Using a cane pole, go out from shore a good 6 to 10 feet. Sink the pole straight down into
the water. Once you feel that you are at the top of the sedimentation, place a mark on the pole. After you have marked the
pole, push it until it will not go any further. This is where you have reached the hardpan. Take your measurement from the
water line of the pole to the mark you made earlier.
Enzymes and Bacteria will slowly disolve the sedimentation, making it much less hard packed
and more fluffy. As mentioned earlier in the smell test, as aerobic bacteria become more prevalent, the sedimentation lessens.
Pictures of your pond are also VERY helpful. It is hard to explain to a person what
is wrong with a pond. Pictures help paint the picture in that persons mind to better assist you with a problem you may be
having. No two ponds are identical. Every pond has its own unique features and characteristics, meaning one remedy may work
in one pond but not in another. This is why pictures better explain the issues and details.
|
