Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New member...muddy pond...

Just retired in NE Texas country, no highways and noise, lots of nature, a nice little pond (+/- 1 AF) pond that used to have bluegill and catfish has gone muddy. After reading lots of articles, I've determine it's likely caused by erosion from my efforts of trying to maintaine the surroundings (no cattle or excess animal usage, just occasional deer, squirrel, and a wood duck or two in the winter months). So now I'm letting grasses grow and improving erosion areas. I performed various jug test with aluminum sulfate and determined a light dosage (1/4 tsp/ gal) breaks the cloudy water nicely. I have treated the pond three times with no success. 1st, solubilized 16 lbs and sprayed over the top , 2nd time, scattered 16 lbs by hand, 3rd time drained about half the pond, turned off the areator, solubilized 40 lbs and sprayed, still no success. My sprayer is probably undersized for the job and it took a while but did cover the pond. Now it still just as brown as when I started. My next option is to start over and pump the pond dry if needed. I have a dedicated well for lawn irrigation I will use to refill the pond. The question is if I drain the pond do I need to treat the clay bottom with alum before refilling...any help would be appreciated...

There is a forum topic where you may get more responses here:

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=16&page=1

What I would guess is that your fish are causing the turbidity as they are hunting for food. Are there grass carp, common carp, etc in the pond? I don't know if catfish would be responsible...

Good luck and welcome.