Originally Posted By: John F
I don't know what it is about my ponds, but you can stir up the nearly pure clay bottoms and it settles in a few hours. Never used alum. Any explanations?


The NRCS agent talked about clay and muddy water when designing my pond. He said some clays were a problem and others were not. That is when he suggested if I wanted clear water to line the pond with a thin layer of topsoil as the silt and sand particles in topsoil are much larger and would not cause turbidity problems. He was correct in that assessment in that my main pind I did line with topsoil and my other ponds did not and there was definitely a difference.

What he did not tell me and I later learned here on PBF is that the topsoil is loaded with nutrients that can lead to excessive nutrient load and algae problems, which I have had.

But the point he made is not all clays are equal in creating turbidity.

Last edited by snrub; 05/10/17 11:02 PM.
John

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