This is probably a silly question but I can't seem to find a simplified answer. I believe everyone's referring to "Alum" as aluminum sulfite but please correct me if I'm wrong.

My situation is I have a 3/4 acre pond that just got dug out and is INCREDIBLY muddy - It happened when we had it dug the previous year and took quite a while to settle (dug out twice since the first time they scammed us ) - It currently looks like coffee with cream and I'm having a lot of fish death in the shallows

I tried "muck away" but I don't believe it's the correct treatment.

Can someone please recommend me something to assist with this? If Aluminum Sulfite is the only thing, is it safe for my aquatic life? Newts, turtles, frogs, etc?

Thank you

Hi Lucas,
Welcome to PondBoss! Always great to find others in MI with a love for ponds.
It sounds like you could tell us quite a story about the joys and pains of being a pond owner. If you have time, share with us the history of your pond and what you learned over time.

For your muddy water problem, do yo know why it is muddy? Do you have a source of water that flows into or out of the pond? What is the soil like that you encountered when digging out? Did you do a complete drain, dry out, dig deeper, then refill? Was there clay there already or brought in?

I ask because soil types determine how fast the particles in the water will settle. In addition if you have fish or crayfish stirring up the bottom that can add to the turbid conditions.

There are good threads about this and Rainman is the expert on this. I tried to study those treads but the chemistry of Alum plus keeping the pH balanced is beyond what a do it yourselfer can do. You need to measure your volume of water, your pH, then calculate how to put in enough alum and then enough buffering compound to avoid a pH shift. You need a floating barge to do it right with large pumps.

But I'm sure someone can chime in and help you. When we had our pond redug, as a testimony to the typical MI ground water pond, we had little clay and very clear water for weeks after refilling.

WE have used the polymer product Soilfloc to help seal ours. It is a two part product and one part acts as a floculant (it grabs the suspended particles because of their electrical charge) and pulls them to the bottom. It does a great job of clearing up the water and then that silt and the polymer are pulled into the bottom of the pond helping seal the bottom. I don't know how long the water would stay clear since ponds with clay bottoms tend to get muddy again anytime there is a inflow of water (like a big rain with surface water runoff)

The Alum seems to last longer and someone smarter than me can probably explain why

Alum is safe to use. I did it myself in a 3 acre pond. It is amazing how well that stuff works. But stick to the amount of hydrated lime and alum blend for best results. Go to the forum list, click and read some of Rainmans suggestions on how much to add. Tell us about your scam so others might learn. Welcome to the Forum.