P.H. In a river?

[Shallow Runner]

O.k. Let's start here, I'm sure all of you have heard old wives tales before. Anyhow I was talking to a couple of old men the other day and they said the river was (flipped). They also said this happens every few years. They were saying this is why the river was so muddy and the good clear water was on the bottom along with the fish. They also went on to say that the p.h. wasn't right because of this. The facts are it has been raining heavily in my area and just recently stopped. Also the farmers are letting water out of their fields. I'm just wandering if anyone who knows something about p.h. would have an explanation. Also if anyone has ever heard of a body of water flipping that would like to take a shot at explaining. Maybe there is some scientific facts or explanation to this or maybe it's just a tall tail.


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[CrappiePappy]

I've never heard of a river going thru "turnover" (what the old men refer to as "flipped"). Generally it's a deal that happens in some lakes & ponds (that have low flowage) when weather creates a cold layer of water over a warm layer ... and the cold layer, being heavier, reaches a point where it gets heavy enough to sink down thru the lower warm layer & mixes.

As for the pH ... it could have been changed by agricultural runoff.

Even so ... I think the gentlemen were just making excuses for themselves, possibly as a reason why they weren't catching any fish

... cp

[Shallow Runner]

You might be dead on about the excuses. I sure appreciate the insight.


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[crappiefarmer]

Black crappie can tolerate higher acidic water. I know this because the rivers in my neck of the woods are tannin stained. There are a couple lakes in Eastern NC that are high acid because of the cypress trees. The water is bad enough that the crappie don't taste good. Water is so black that the crappie are yellow where they are supposed to have white. They are tough but can't tolerate the low oxygen and will hunt for that.CF

[Shallow Runner]

Now that makes sense because we have had over 1 foot of rain this month in southwest Louisiana. The water rose 100's of yards into the cypress swamps and then gradually started to receed. No one has caught fish since the rains started. I did not know that cypress trees released acid that removed oxygen from water. We normally catch them right off the cypress trunks and knees during the spawn.


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[crappiefarmer]

Now that makes sense because we have had over 1 foot of rain this month in southwest Louisiana. The water rose 100's of yards into the cypress swamps and then gradually started to receed. No one has caught fish since the rains started. I did not know that cypress trees released acid that removed oxygen from water. We normally catch them right off the cypress trunks and knees during the spawn.


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I don't think the cypress trees affect the oxygen levels in the water, just the PH. Water temp,wind, current have more to do with dissolved oxygen content. Crappie can tolerate the high acid but they will move when DO gets low.CF

[bfish]

USGS flow gages sometimes also check water quality conditions. Use the "measurement" box and pull down PH for list of gages that measure PH.

Look for a gage nearby your stream and you see a similar pattern.

Real-time water quality

[hookum]

Rivers don't flip - they have current, only small lakes,ponds usually flip and usually when it happens you will see alot of setiment and alage that is released from the bottom of the lake due to the inbalance of oxygen in the water. Its not a yearly or bi-year or any type of cycle it just happens when the oxygen levels get out of wack and usually in late spring or summer.