Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Calculation/Amount

Hey everyone this is my first post. I have been reading on here for the past few days and I have gotten some really good information. But basically, I wanted to ask my specific question to get a for sure answer. I have about a 0.5 acre pond on my property. It was originally used for livestock but I had it dug out and deepend. It has been this way for about the past 9 years, and ever since then it has been severely muddy. Visibility at best maybe an inch and a half. I have been reading on the different solutions and have decided to go with alum. I found a local chemical distributor to get it from in the powdered form. I just have a few questions.. and I am sorry if these are repetitive.. Firstly, I read that for every acre foot you add about 50 lbs of alum, is that an accurate number? So for my pond being 0.5 acres with an average depth of about 5.5 feet that would mean my pond is 2.75 acre/feet? So if that 50lb per acre foot is correct, I need about 300 lbs of alum? And as far as distributing it I have read that you add about 1lb of alum for every gallon of water for the mixture? I cant remember if that is correct or not.. I do have a vertex diffuser, so i thought about placing the alum near the bubbles to distribute it. I guess any help, recommendations, or reassurance would be great! Sorry for the long post! and I plan on adding before and after photos of my pond as well. My main use for the pond is recreational fishing, though we have never had very good luck fishing do to the water quality.. So I am hoping clearing it up will help.

Thanks,

Fred

Welcome Fred.

Check out this link and read the section that talks about the bucket test. that should help you determine how much alum you need.

http://agrilifeweb.tamu.edu/wildlife/files/2010/05/4_Control_of_Clay_Turbidity.pdf

Thank you for the reply, I will probably try the bucket test to figure out how much I need. I am confused on mixing the water and alum together. That link says a ratio of 10 parts water to one part alum. What would be 10 parts of water and one part alum?

If you had a cup of alum you would add 10 cups of water. A part is whatever measurement you want it to be so if you needed 100 lbs of alum you need 1000 lbs of water to mix with the alum.

Chris,
I was putting a 50 lb bag of alum in a 55 gal drum and mixing it with a trolling motor and then spraying over the pond in various spots around the bank with a trash pump. My pond is 1 1/2 acres and I think about 8-10 ft average depth. I applied 800# but it didn't clear much. Was my mixing or application the problem?

That's a Rainman question. I've never applied it myself. Only read about it.

What is your visiblity? Check out that link I posted above. If you needed the highest concentration, it shows around 900 lbs would need to be used.

I might have 6" visibilty now. Right after I applied it, maybe 8-10"

Cisco, your application method sounds good. I've personally applied it with a trash pump similar to what you're doing with good results.

I use a five gallon bucket (with plenty of holes in it). Put the intake of the trash pump into the bucket. Then I slowly pour the alum into the bucket allowing it to be mixed with the incoming water. I do this off the dam on the deep end and spray in that area. The trick is to watch the PH and apply it slowly.

I like that alot better than the 55 gal drum. I was having to put the intake in the pond to fill the barrel and then put it in the barrel to spray the slurry. The pump I rented had a 2" diameter hose on it so it moved quite a bit of water. You way is a lot less work. I'll try to get a good depth on the pond in the next few weeks and figure out how much I need. I think Rainman told me before to get plenty and keep applying it until I can see the water "cloud" up. Thanks for the help guys, I'll keep you posted.