Originally Posted By: DKFarms

Bobad, in your last post, did I understand you to infer that you put alum in a pile in your pond? Does that work? It would sure beat the heck out of the gyrations I have to go through to get the stuff sprayed on the water.


Yes.

I dumped it into a pile in a shallow corner of my pond (where there are no fish), and it dissolved within an hour or 2. Flocculation occurred all over the pond. Unlike gypsum, alum dissolves exactly like salt or sugar. If your pond has suspended negatively charged clay particles, the positively charged alum diffuses chemically. Remember your chemistry lesson where a drop of skunk odor permeates a large room within 10 seconds? Alum works the same way. You couldn't stop it from diffusing quickly if you tried, assuming the water is not already saturated with chemicals. Try it in a wide pan of muddy water. A pinch of alum in one corner will settle the clay in the entire pan.

The only advantage I know to spreading alum vs. dumping it is that it works quicker. Spreading it, it takes 2 minutes. Dumping it, it takes 2 hours.

Shrimp