Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Sink the boat with Gypsum 101

OK, here's how you do it! First throw about ten 40lb bags of gypsum in the bow of the boat, then slide the boat off of fairly steep bank and there you go. Then wait for the wife and kids to laugh :rolleyes:

I'm laughing with you!

Been there and done that with lime.

I think I've spent my life doing that.

I laughed too. Thanks.

Why did you do it like that? It dissolves much quicker if you take it out of the bags!

Have you been taking lessons at my place?

Thanks for the "crash" course!

A reputable pond management professional gives the owner a good value for the price. A dishonest one gypsum.

Pictures please?

I've almost been there, Dr. Don...even in a 16 ft. wide V aluminum boat.

Total Weights:
23 bags of gypsum at 40 lbs. per bag = 920 lbs.
My 6'5" (and only 18 y/o) cousin = 310 lbs.
Me, the runt of the family, tipping the scales at about 230 lbs.

Grand total was 1460 pounds plus trolling motor/battery. We'll call it 1500. Not my brightest idea. We had about 3" clearance to the water. Thankfully we had a pier to load from and not a steep bank. There would no "sliding the boat" anyhow. Somehow, we stayed dry despite the stupidity. How long did the wife and kids laugh at you?

Hey I appreciate all the responses. This is a great site and have learned a lot from reading prior posts. Sound like maybe I'm not the only one to use the submersion technique to clean their boat lol Question, what would happen if a little to much gypsum was applied to my pond?

DrDon,

Not 100% sure, but I think it's highly unlikely that gypsum will harm fish.

I over applied by a huge amount in my minnow pond just to see how the minnows would react. Even with 10x more than I needed, the fathead and gambusia never even reacted. I previously did the same experiment with Alum. The fish kept eating and behaving normally. It appears to me that fish have a huge tolerance for mineral load and pH swings. It may affect spawning, of course, and some species may be a bit more sensitive than others.

Bobad, thanks for the quick reply, I think your right. I put about a 1000lb of gypsum in the pond about a week ago but it really didnt go into the pond the way I wanted. The stuff sinks really fast and some of the bags were a little hard to handle after they went down with the ship earlier in the afternoon lol. I should have laid a peice of plywood across the back of the boat for more of an accurate control of the rate at which it was being poured into the water. I was wondering if I should have left all the aerators on while I was dumping to mix it in better then shut em off after I was done?

Is it just me, or do we REALLY need to see pic's to get the full effect of this event? Laughing right there along with ya...I'm just glad that we don't need to lime ponds here in Iowa. Sounds too much like an awful lot of work to me.

I actually made all my spawning beds out of 3/4" "road stone", which is limestone gravel, with all the fines still in it. Fish nested right in amongst all that, so it can't affect too much, eh?

I wanted to apply some gypsum in my pond, but I just couldn't get rid of this sinking feeling that it wouldn't come out right.