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face72 Offline OP
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My spring fed pond is crystal clear right now (December). Its cold, not rainy, and clear. Its about 75 foot round...and all clay. In the summer......its cloudy. Theres a few things that I think might cause this..but was looking for some advice and thoughts...

1. More water going in and out of it from the rainfall.
2. Its cold..so not a lot of things grow to make it like that.
3. Frogs have hybernated...so there not mixing it up.

What Im wondering is....if I rock this clay lined pond. Would I still have cloudy water in the summer?

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Most probably as my guess is the cloudy appearance is caused by warmwater plankton bloom.
















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face72,
Clearer water in the cold months compared to warm months is common. Usually the pond water will be
clearest during the winter season.

Numerous things by themselves or in combination can cause cloudy water. As ewest says, a denser or more abundant plankton community will reduce water transparency. Plankton growth slows dramatically when the water is near 39F. Bacterial populations also dramatically decrease during cold water periods. Bacterial concentrations that are responsible for decompositional activity can become quite abundant during summer.

I have learned that the activity of frogs and tadpoles even at faaaaairly high densities have little influence on causing water cloudines in established ponds. You are correct that during cold water periods animal life becomes less active. Animals that can contribute to water cloudiness are bottom or bank burrowing animals such as muskrats or other mammals. It would take a real high number of turtles working on the bottom to casue continual water cloudiness.

Fish such as catfish-bullheads types, koi or carp, even numerous goldfish, species of large sucker or redhorse, and or very high numbers of bottom oriented minnows such as fatheads, bluntnose, mudminows, etc can contribute substancially to water cloudiness.


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face72 Offline OP
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Yeah theres no fish in these ponds. Would plankton form in the summer if the pond was rocked in?

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How cloudy does it get (what's the visibility or secchi depth) and what are your goals for the visibility?


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Summer months...6" its cloudy..mabye even less. Winter...I can see to the bottom (4 feet deep).

The pond has always had a clay bottom...Id like to have a rock bottom, but only if the water will be clear. If its always going to be cloudy...not much use for a rock bottom. So Im trying to pinpoint what makes it cloudy? Is it biological....or is it just because it has a muddy bottom? Its a costly roll of the dice I have to figure out.

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Face72,

"I'd like to have a rock bottom, but only if the water will be clear."

Based on this statement, I'm going to guess that the reason you would like a rock bottom is for aesthetics. If your pond is anything like mine, in time the rocks will become covered with growth which will greatly diminish their aesthetic appearance. Just an opinion.

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face72 - lets get some more background info about your small 0.1 acre clay bottomed pond.

You stated - "Yeah theres no fish in these ponds." Ponds? Now there are more than one pond?. Is this topic a joke and a test for us?

I think we can figure out the main problem. New clay bottom ponds after several years develop an organic layer across the bottom that typically isolates the clay basin from the water column. The organic layer allows the overlying column water to remain clear if the sediments are not disturbed in some way.
1. Is there a water shed for this pond? Or is just direct falling rain water the only way this pond receives water?. Lets eliminate water shed as a causative agent.
2. Have you performed the jar settling test during the summer when water is the cloudiest? I think we can eliminate electrically charged clay particles because the water does clear up during winter.
3. I have the ability to microscopically examine the particles that are causing the cloudiness. I suggest that you email me and make arrangements to get an analysis of the water. Let's do an analysis now when the water is relatively clear and one when the water is cloudy - then compare the two results. This will tell us what components and their percentages that are actually causing cloudiness.

In addition to my post above, a pond without fish can develop high numbers of crayfish which when abundant can cause very cloudy water. Your cloudiness is either caused by biological growths or some sort of sediment stirring activity such as wind currents, animal activity, or watershed, sediment laden runoff which is then exacerbated once it is within the pond basin. I strongly suspect that, you have unbeknownst to you, some critter mucking up the sediments during warmer weather.


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Yep...pond-s. My property is on a hillside with a creek flowing down the middle of it. Ive terraced the creek off to form 3 ponds. One pond spills into another and another. I also have a spring on the right side of my property... Thats where Im thinking about building this new pond. (I've mentioned it on here before) Its going to be a clear natural swimming pool. I've done some research, gotten a few books on the subject. Yeah, I know about the muck on the bottom over time. Im going to keep this vacumed in the summer months...just like a pool. But if I cant keep it clear....why waste the money on the rock. I'll dig it 15' deep and I wont be able to touch the bottom. Havnt done the "bucket test" yet.


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