Ever since we had the pond put in it has been chocolate milk. On a good day we had maybe 10 inches of view. The pond is about 1/4 acre +/- depending on if you count the streams the feed into it.

We started yesterday and mixed 50 pounds of alum in a stock tank with pond water then sprayed it over half the pond. Then repeated the process with about 20 pounds of hydrated lime.

Let it rest overnight an did it again this on the other half of the pond. pH is within a couple tenths of where we started yesterday, so I'm happy that we got the ratios pretty close.

We fed the fish tonight and saw some solid activity with the smaller fish. The minnows have vanished. I'm assuming that when we started they all ran upstream (we have mostly creek chubs) and I suspect that as they get used to the clear water we will see more of them. And I have no doubt that the larger fish are just hunkered down deep like usual.

We didn't measure, but eyeball says we are now seeing more than 3 feet of clarity, possibly 4. Very happy with the nice clear green color over the brown it used to be.

Never would have sorted this out if it weren't for the forum. I got my Aluminum sulfate and lime from the local co-op. They had to order it in. Also, when you go to pick up the alum, it might not be a good idea to kill birds with one stone and get 55 gallons of diesel at the same time. You get funny looks from people.

Looks great!

Be careful with clear water. A downside of clarity I have experienced is the proliferation of filamentous algae (FA). To me, algae covering a pond is much worse than muddy water. It becomes unfishable by late summer.

Exactly. My pond usually (I think) muddies up during the flash floods we get in the Spring and early Summer. By late Summer it is finally clearing up some and usually pretty nice in the Fall. Two years ago when I first bought the property we had a relatively calm Spring and the water stayed pretty clear. By mid-to-late Summer the algae was so bad it was getting nearly unfishable. You had to clean your lure off after every cast. I would much rather deal with muddy water than the algae. But each person has different goals and thoughts of what a pond should be.

We have never had clear water here. Very few ponds in the entire area are remotely clear, they are all muddy because of the heavy clay soil and all the runoff. I had hoped that it would clear since it is mostly spring fed, but it never did.

For now I'll be happy with the clear water and the very spooked fish. If we get an algae issue later I'll deal with it then.

So far though, the best part is we can now watch the ducks feed. And swim. One of them is an underwater expert and we can finally watch her swimming underwater. Its pretty cool.

Glad it worked for you Steve! You kind of got lucky it cleared so well since Alum is not cumulative on applications....essentially, you did 50# doses when it should have been a 100# dose. It's kind of like medicine...you need the proper size dose. or it never really helps...

Good to know. Maybe I could have gotten away with 50#.

My intention is to not worry about it for a couple years, or until the water becomes an issue again.

The big plus right now is tonight the fish fed normally after a few days of being 'off'. I even saw some larger YP just cruising the edges and grabbing pellets sort of casually. And probably the biggest creek chub I have ever seen. He looked almost big enough to eat