re: Per the LSU Ag Center my pond has a pH of 4.53

I bought a test kit myself and the pH wouldn't even show on the strips. The test strips weren't expired but I thought they might be old. We have a friend that works environmental at a nuclear plant in South Carolina and when she was in town she tested the water herself and got the same result.

I took a sample to LSU when I was in Baton Rouge last week and I just got the results back today. I plan on taking another sample and getting it tested again.

When my grandparents built the pond about 35 years ago they had sold dirt for a couple of nearby bridges. The construction company turned in the pit into a pond. At that time they had cattle so the pond slopes in gradually at one end but is about 20' deep at the levee. During the construction they hit a underground spring and we kept having water seep up. We do have another spring nearby that comes up out of the group that has been used as a water source for people in years past.

When we first stocked it we kept having catfish dying and we couldn't figure out why. The wildlife had us bring in a fish for testing and when they tested the water they freaked out about the pH then too. Their assumption is that it was from the spring water.

After a year or two the fish stopped dying and we had decades of great fishing. Now the pond has turned crystal clear. The sample I took looked like bottled water it was so clear.

I'm wondering if the drought last year threw off the balance of the pond.