Hey everyone,
I am new to PB. I've looked around this site from time to time, but this is my first time to post.
I have a pond 10.3 acre ft. (250x150x12'deep) When I had it dug 3 years ago, I had beautiful water. I had my soil tested and all came back good. I stocked with bass, bream, and channel catfish. Everything seemed fine. My property flooded in 2016, and I do not know what all I had lost. When I went to feed my fish nothing was coming up, so I completely restocked it. After I restocked, I notice now that many of my catfish were retained through the flood. I have some big 3 year olds in there. Well, ever since the flood, I cannot get rid of my muddy water. It almost looks like chocolate milk. I added 6 50lb bags of alum as well as hydrated lime. That started to clear it up for about a day, then, back to chocolate milk. My aerator stirs it back up as well. I did the jar test and the water did pretty much clear up after 6 days. So I figure it may be my catfish stirring it up. I cannot catch them quick enough, as they only seem to bite at dusk, and I haven't had the time to try and catch them all. I put in a slat trap, but had no success. I was about to put out a trot line to try. I am running out of options.
Can anyone help? I am almost to the point of draining or killing off and starting over. Is draining the answer, and using my well to refill, then restock, or use Rotenone to kill off, then restock? If I were to drain, I face the problem of getting all the fish out, and where to dispose them.
Thanks in advance.
Attached is a picture of the water. Ignore the green algae, that is for another time.
This was before the flood and restock.
