Hi all,
Well, I had the air bubblers system going 24/7 all summer long. What I have seen and experienced is about 5-6 inches of muck actually has been digested. I expected at least 12 inches! Although I am seeing more sandy areas along the shores edge, which is great.

Here's an a story you may find very interesting. Usually every day I walk out on my dock to just take it all in. It was the middle of August on one of those beautiful sunrise mornings I was walking out to the end of the dock to have a sit. I noticed in about 2 feet of water this white thingy sticking out of the muck. I fished it out with a fishing net and discovered that it was a white ceramic coffee cup. It did not match anything we have in the house. It was old looking. I walk that dock every day and never saw it before. So this proves to me that it's working, but just not to the extent of what I expected.

Here's what I know now! I have discovered that there is heavy layers of fibrous material throughout the depth of the muck. This summer was hot and the water level in the lake was getting very low. The shores edge had receded by about 6 feet and my pontoon boat motor was hitting bottom. I had an idea! It was one of those moments where you say to your buddy... "Here, hold my beer and watch this"! So I backed the pontoon boat into the slip area where the boat motor is facing the shore and tied the boat off to the dock. I gave the boat motor the gas to blow out some of the muck in the boat dock area and make it deeper. What I saw was these huge chunks of fibrous material blowing up from the bottom. Never saw that before either! Later, I grabbed hold of these chunks of fibrous material and pulled them out. What this stuff looked like was particle board, (like what you buy at the lumber yard) that had been water damaged and all swelled up. Only thicker! It was then I thought about when I purchased the bacteria back in the early spring of this year (2012). The recommendation at that time was to add this enzyme product that breaks down cellulose along with the bacteria. Well, I didn't buy the enzyme product. What I was looking at with these chunks that came up from the bottom was years of decayed plants. These chunks were probably 95% cellulose and 5% other black stuff. I believe this fibrous material has slowed down the digestion process. So with all that said I am lead to believe I need to try again next year with the same experiment, but with the addition of the enzyme that was recommended to me. I would be interested in your comments, thoughts, recommendations here.

It's been fun and I'm encouraged by all the interest here in my experiment. I will continue next spring with another regiment of muck digestion. October is almost here and I'll be shutting down my air bubbler system September 30.

Pond Boss is the best,
Bob


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