First off, a special thank you to Rex (Rainman), he phoned me after I sent him a PM with some questions. After an hour on the phone I decided I want to take my next 2 week vacation going on the road with Rex! Never a dull moment
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Having read about every thread on muddy water, alum and hydrated lime treatments I wanted to show my jar and 5 gal bucket test results, for any interested, now and in the future.
The alum I used is the Tones spice Alum found at the grocery store.
First pick was taken 5-7-16, heavy rains came on 5-9-16:
3 weeks after rains:
The jar on the left is fresh pond water, the jar in the middle is after 10 days of sitting in a jar in the dark and jar on the right is tap water:
After adding 1/4 tsp Alum to fresh pond water. Jar on left is 1.5 hours after adding Alum, middle jar fresh pond water, jar on right is tap water:
Jar on left is same jar with 1/4 tsp, jar in middle is 30 minutes after adding 1/8 tsp alum. You can see how the alum is pulling down the particles.
Same jars, 1 hour later:
Same jars the next morning:
So now the 5 gallon bucket, adding 1/2 Tbsp alum:
Before adding alum:
30 minutes after adding 1/2 Tbsp:
1 hour after adding 1/2 Tbsp alum:
12 hours after adding 1/2 Tbsp alum:
I will do another 5 gallon bucket test using less and less alum to determine how much I might need if I decide to use it.
As Rex and I discussed, seeing that things were settling after 10 days the pond may very well settle on it's own. But on the other hand will it, with the aeration system running? With the clarity at 2-3" it's preventing any plankton bloom and fishing is tough! I've caught only one LMB in nearly 3 weeks, and it looked like this:
