The setting..A forum member living near me has a gorgeous custom home nearing completion and had built a really nice Smallie pond in a very picturesque setting.
Problem? His SMB pond looked like creamed coffee and completely ruined the aesthetics of his dream home and he wanted the deep green of a healthy, vibrant ecosystem to gaze upon from his porch.
Solution....He called me and asked if I could help. His pond was larger than any I had cleared before and due to the volume of Alum and hydrated lime needed, I decided to build a chemical barge and tackle his problem.
In July 2011, I built the barge and launched it in his pond, spraying 3600 pounds of alum and 1500 pounds of Hydrated lime simultaneously and the pond cleared well and stayed that way through the summer.
New Problems...A neighbor at the top of the SMB pond's watershed decided to build a pond with a backhoe and graciously spread several dozen yards of colloidal clay, around his property completely exposed and unplanted so that every rain event washes copious amounts of clay into the freshly cleared SMB pond, eventually turning it into an uglier mess than ever.
Rather than be a "bad neighbor" and go to war, I was asked to come out again and clear the pond. For continued, long term control, the inflow areas were also lined with limestone rip rap both above and below a settlement pond along with the placement of "Floc Logs" to treat and remove any new incoming colloidal clay in the future and another 3600 pounds of Alum and 1500 pounds of Hydrated Lime. I'm sure the "nice" neighbor could not care less about the damage being done below his property or that legally speaking, he is trespassing. It was decided to go extra heavy on the alum application to ensure any incoming colloidal clay will not suspend before plant life can establish to eliminate future problems. The "cleared"pictures were taken 2 days after the Alum application and you can see there is a nice bloom starting with the sunshine now reaching deeply into the water.
The first few pictures are indicative of how the pond looked to start and the last picture shows what it was all for!
The silt basin (untreated)
Three views from the front porch area...
A pretty pool and stream flowing into the pond...
Looking back toward the house..SMB bed in the fore ground and looking at bottom in up to a 6 foot depth at a sharp angle..
This is where the BG spawn...2 feet of water along a rock wall..
