Coach B. now that you've gotten the full baptism, let's talk about your pond in layman's terms. Bottom line, you dont need bacteria until you have water quality problems, such as too much nutrients causing excessive algae, green water, floating mats, etc. You may or may not eventually need them. In the deep south, where the summers are long, hot and the pond can get stagnant and polluted or over fertilized from farming, etc., they can kick start new colonies to deal with excess nutrients.
BUT, in no way intended to be contrary to Bill Cody's advice, in my particular case, adding alum to my new, turbid pond, caused the suspended particles to flocculate and sink. that was 1 yr. ago. I have had several big rains, the last being in March, with 5 inches in 3-4 hrs. twice in one seek. the pond breached the dam, was so muddy you could track a coon across it; then when I got there 1 week later to siphon it down, it had 4 ft. visibility. What I am trying to say is, in my case, even though there is still some bare(red clay) ground around the pond, it still settled out. So, the alum has had a lasting effect. I think you should go ahead and try and clear it, add fish, then deal with trying to plant grass for erosion control.
