If you’ve ever driven by a lake that has brown water resembling ice tea then you’ve seen a pond with tannic acid. Most of the time tannic acid is just an aesthetic issue. However, sometimes it can be more serious. This client was about to stock 6,000 3-4″ bluegill before we checked his water quality. The water didn’t even hold 1 milligram worth of oxygen. This would have been a death sentence for the bluegill and an ill-spent $3,600. To help reduce the tannins in the water and improve oxygen levels we applied aglime. Aglime contains high amounts of calcium which raises the pH levels and alkalinity.
With the aglime applied we will give it a few months to start changing the soil and water characteristics. Although this is not a good situation it could have been much worse if fish were stocked. The owner isn’t on the property at all times so the fish would appear to go in healthy but by the time he was out next the buzzards would have cleaned everything up. If you ever face a tough situation with your fishery give AES a call. We have plenty of experience and creativity to solve problems.
