Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Muddy Water transformed to Caribbean Blue

This was a 20 acre lake that went from 1" to 5'+ visibility overnight. Amazing!!!
Aluminum sulfate was used (lots of it), but pH only shifted from 7.5 to 7.2
I expected a much greater shift.

What kind of fish r u putting in it

None! Oddly enough, this non-stocked lake will be pumped dry by the end of next week in preparation to dig its final contour and depth before "development" begins. The treated water is being transfered to an adjacent lake. The developer didn't want the super-muddy water to make the adjacent lake unsightly.

How many tons, and how many man hours to apply it? That's an amazing transformation!

I see a cow in the pic. Was that the cause of the turbidity? Can I assume that the adjacent lake was already clear?

Esshup: almost 10 tons dispersed in 5 hours. The water needed to clear fast so pumping could begin.

Mr. D: Yes, I'm sure the livestock didn't help matters - but the powdered clay and silt in that area wouldn't settle on its own anyway. Actually, the cattle could barely get to the water's edge before sinking up to their knees - and had a tough time getting out afterwards.

Wow. That is incredible.

When you do something like that, do you get big knots in your stomach 'till you know if it worked?

Ken

Actually, I've never seen it not work - if enough is used. The limiting factor is $, and the presence of fish - which were absent in this case.
Large-scale herbicide treatments are another story. Our largest treatments in TX utterly pale in comparison to an average treatment in FL.

Kelly, that's a lot of shoveling! I'm amazed at the difference in the color of the water.

Kelly, my curiosity involved the adjacent lake that was evidently not turbid. Seems like they would have the same bottoms, etc.

This is an entirely different world from the typical rural-pond scenario. The older lake that is receiving the cleared-water is surrounded by new-home construction. It is a typical "suburban community lake" (no cattle) that had its final depth and shoreline contoured before home-development began.
The muddy lake will receive its final depth and perimeter definition once it is pumped dry. Thereafter, its shoreline areas will be stabilized and livestock will be removed as home-construction begins - which should eliminate the recurrance of turbidity issues.

Got a question about the suburban community lakes. One day they are digging and the next time I look, they have water. How do they do it?

Probably a lot of $$ and access to a large water supply, either piped in or some honkin' big wells.

There's a plastic bucket mfg. that isn't too far from the house and they wanted the county's permission to sink a 16" dia. well to supply water to cool their molding machines. The county said no.

Water wells! Lots of water wells!
Most urban community lakes serve multiple functions: storm-water detention (mandated), commons-area irrigation-water storage (necessary), aesthetics (it's there, might as well).
Due to so-called subsidence issues (in Harris and adjacent counties in SE TX) and the resulting legislated progressive-transition from ground-water to surface-water sources, the cost to pump well-water into these urban lakes is going ballistic. And don't dare bust your "permitted" (pre-purchased) annual estimated gallonage. Any excess pumpage = 3x the permitted price per 1k gal + penalty.
Early-alerted investors in the scheme (who purchased permit-credits, aka "rights to pump") are making a killing. I predict the same scenario behind the "carbon-credit" scheme.

Incredible pics!


I'm not sure how it relates but,
We are on city supplied water, it was very tricky to be able to have a well also, even though we have sufficient acreage to support a well by the county codes.
There's a lot of peace of mind in having a back-up water source.

Jeff-

Thanks for posting that story, Kelly. Interesting.