Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Water testing... odd results.

I have been filling up my new 1 acre 45mil liner pond (240 * 180 * 15ft) from the creek. I have gotten some run off from the road ditch (which is my primary inflow) and have mostly been pumping from the adjacent steam. Originally the water looked brownish, but now has a green tint.

I have extracted a couple of 5 gallon buckets of water from the area to execute tests with. The first thing I noticed was the water in the buckets wasn't nearly as dark as what the water actually looked like in the pond area.

So with my three 5 gallon buckets I executed the following tests:

1 5g baseline with nothing added
1 5g with 1 cup of pellet lime added
1 5g with 1 cup of pellet gypsum added

I stirred all of them 3 times with 30 minutes in between. What I noticed immediately was the lime and gypsum buckets turned from a green / yellow to a light brown color...??? So I let them sit overnight. Results:

Baseline = no change
Lime added = dark milk chocolate color. Almost no visibility.
Gypsum added = dark milk chocolate color. 1 inch of visibility.

I stirred the lime and gypsum buckets again and both of them turned to a light brown color. Let it set again another day and got the same results.

What I wanted to see was the side view of the containers, but I couldn't see through the buckets themselves. So I purchased 3 1g clear plastic bottles.

I thought maybe I put too much lime and gypsum in them on the first test so I put in 1 tablespoon this time. Results:

Same as the previous tests, except the fact that the baseline bottle was fairly clear (6"-8"). I noticed that the lime bottle didn't clear what so ever, but the gypsum had fairly clear water on the top inch, but then a mix of haze slightly lower. About 3 inches down it was a dark brown color.

So I dumped them out and started another test. This time with vinegar and bleach. Test layout:

1 with 1 tsp vinegar added
1 with 1 tbsp vinegar added
1 with 1 tsp bleach added

Let these sit a day and the results as follows:
1 tsp vinegar, not much change
1 tbsp vinegar added, decent change.
1 tsp bleach added, clear as a bell!

I'm figuring that the cloudy water is caused by an organism issue. The bleach sure did clear it up nicely.

Couple of questions after these tests:

1. Why did the lime make the water look so bad? Was it because it was the lawn pellet lime that has other stuff in it?

2. Why did the gypsum make the water look so bad? Same as the lime above?

3. I though vinegar would kill the organisms just a good as bleach. But not nearly as nice as the bleach. I think the bleach is not only killing the organisms, but also bleaching everything in the bottle a clear color. So it looks a tone better.

4. What alternatives to bleach are there? Cutrine plus? Alum Sulfate? Any recommendations?


The primary use of this pond will be for swimming / scuba pratice. I would also like to have some fish to feed and see while doing scuba pratice. I have a shelf on the pond edge about 3ft by 3ft (to stop muskrats from digging holes in the liner) that is currently being lined with limestone rock.

Thanks for any help.

Pelleted lime and gyp have a binder that is brown but it dissipates quickly. My guess is the brown is plankton that the lime and gyp had little effect on but the chlorine killed. Vinegar is not near as strong as bleach. Chlorine can bind with the soil and cause long term problems with fish and plankton. Did you notice if there was any settling in the bottom of the bucket? If it is indeed plankton/organics then an option would be a copper product . Chleated copper products don't cause soil problems. With no organics there will be no food chain to support a fish population absent feeding.

Here is one example http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/guide/cutrine_label.pdf

With no soil to impact CUSO4 copper sulfate could be an option.

I doubt Alum would help in reasonable amounts as it does not sound like a suspended soil problem.

I think the original browish color was from the creek water after a heavy rain fall. Once the creek slowed, the water that I was pumping into the pond had a more greenish tint. The water in the pond settled as well, considering the area being input into grew as the pond started to fill (hence the brown color settled to the bottom).

So right now I have a yellow / greenish color water because there are no fish to stir it up. I need to actually do a visability test in the deeper part, because the black liner is absoring alot of light and the overall color is darker than what I think it actually is. As I got another batch of water out I could see leaves about 1 feet down on the liner itself.

What is interesting is the water I took near the surface (down about 6 inches) is more clear than than the water I took in another bottle about 1 foot down. So "where" you take the water sample from makes a difference (DOH!).

Running another test with 2 tbps of vinegar this time.

How would one tell or what are the symptoms of to much chlorine?

neo if you want a fishing pond I would not use chlorine. If it is for swimming or scuba and lined then , like a pool , it will clear the water. As you noted all color comes from sunlight. Black is a color mixture and absorbs all of the light spectrum. Water reflects the sky/color and bottom reflection. Black bottom = color absorption and dark looking water even though it may be clear. If the color is from suspended solids and is clearing I would wait on winter and see what you have. It may clear by itself.

cheezy1963 By the time symptoms appear in the soil the damage would be done. See this link.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=37346&fpart=1

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post50314

Agreed. I'm looking into to this WAY to early. I'm still pumping with a 3" pump everyday into the area.

What kind of effect will limestone rock 3 feet deep have on the overall water quality?

With using the pelleted gypsum how fast will the brown binder dissipate? I tried testing some in a jar last week and it stained the water completely brown and have since been afraid of trying it in my pond.

I used 2 kinds of pelleted gypsum in my minnow pond. Boh types dissolved quickly, and the pond settled crystal clear in about 8 hours.

BassAggie,

I need to contact my local co-op locations to see have they have the non-pelletized form of gypsum. I had really bad results from testing the pelletized form in my test jars.

I hope to contact them later today and get some samples to test with. Will let you know the results early next week (w/ pics).