Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Experience with 'Lake Kleerant'

Does anyone here have any experience with 'Lake Kleerant'? The reason why I ask is because it comes with alum and sodium bicarbonate as a buffer and my water seems to be a light-green to greyish color now (it was brown before treatment). Is that because of the sodium bicarbonate and will it settle out also?

My visibility went from about .125 inches to 7.5 inches and the ph is 7.4 and total alkalinity is about 80. I've applied about 300 pounds over a 3 week period into my ~.5 acre pond with ~2 acre feet of water. I'm thinking that I might stop with the treatments because I fear I'm getting close to the edge and don't want a fish kill after everything I've been through to save them. My thought is that I'll fertilize a little because before the pond renovation, fertilizing use to clear it a little. Thoughts?

What was your pH to begin with?

It was 7.6. I checked each time before treatment. I would see a starting ph of 7.4 - 7.6 and after treatment around 6.8. All treatments were done in the evening between 5 and 7pm. I only found one dead CC (1 pound) the day after a treatment and it may have been a casualty of a heron because it had a hole in it's lower side. Note: I'm using spa test strips for my ph and alk tests.

Refer to my recommendations on the following thread.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=5386&Number=49373#Post49373

It's much cheaper to use straight alum, if you can watch the pH yourself. And you could buffer it yourself, if you wished to save some money.

Regardless, I'd attempt the simple test described in the other thread sometime to see how much product can be safely used.

thanks Bruce. I agree, after buying the product (first 80 pounds) I found it was much cheaper to buy the alum and bicarb from a local chemical distributer. That is what I did after I figured out what the ingredients were. I kept the ratio's the same and applied the chemicals the same way. The alkalinity of my pound suggested that I didn't need the bicarb but I added it anyways just to be safe. It seemed to neutralize the alum as it was applied.

I guess my original question should have been asking if anyone had applied sodium bicarbonate to their pond and did it turn a greyish color afterwards.

I've ran the tests referenced and I'm seeing that 1 tablespoon of the alum slurry into my 1 gallon of pond water clears it in about 4 hours so it suggests that I don't need much. I think I will watch it for another week and see if anymore needs to be added. I'm shooting for about 12 inches of visibility then I'll let nature take its course. Would be nice to get 36 inches plus but I think that would be pushing my luck.

Sounds like you're following a sound, well thought out plan.

Keep us informed.

Very though out....thanks to this site. I read many posts before even attempting to clear the water.