Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Alum and Lime to clear water

I did it but not happy with the results
1) Got 5 - 1 gal samples of pond water.
2) Test ph, below 6.5, hardness and Alkalinity both lowest on test strip and clarity using a white coffee cup on a strip 6" to 8"
3) Number gallon jugs 1 thru 5, put 1 tbsp aluminum sulphate in #2, 2 in #3, 3 in #4 and 4 in #5
4) After 12 jug #2 was as clear as # 5.
5) After doing the math I came up with .6978 ac/ft water
6) On this past Saturday I turned of the pond aerator, dissolved 10# Hy Lime in 20 gal of water in garbage can used a pump, hose and garden water nozzle and sprayed 1/2 the pond, waited and hour for fish to acclimate
7) Dissolved 20# Aluminum Sulphate in 30 gals of water and repeated procedure then waited an hour
8) I repeated steps 6 and 7 on the other half waiting an hour before and between
9) Today, Monday, everything is just as before I started, all levels are the same and the clarity did not get any better.
10) Before putting in the aerator about a month ago clarity was about 2'

Before leaving today I caught 8 CC and 12 of these, what are they? GSF?





Also I saw about 100 what I call Ditch Minnows, lot of pregnat females and nearly as many new born or yoy about 1/4" in the grass along the bank.

Yep, that is a green sunfish.

hd82, it may need more alum. When the alum concentration is high enough flocculation occurs and looks like clouds in the water....not a high enough concentration and you get little to no flocculation.

I've had to add as much as 150# alum per ac/ft before to achieve floc.

Rainman, you mentioned that the Hy Lime could be broadcast to cover pond, can the Alumi Sulphate also be broadcast dry? Just thinking when I did the jar test I didn't dissolve first, just put it into the jug of pond water and watched it sink and then float back up getting larger with each descent.

Powdered alum can be broadcast, but it still dissolve relatively slowly and sinks before becoming very effective. Hy Lime dissoves very quickly.

When you did the jar tests.....Did you put a tablespoon full of straight Alum in the jars, or a tbsp of Test Solution containing alum?

Also, what type of diffueser do you uses? How is it set in the water? How many diffusers and what amount of air volume is pumped?

On page 2 of this thread is a picture of the jugs of water, Thursday 09/02. I took the granulated Aluminum Sulphate from the bag to the jar (dry. The aerator I got from Ted Lea,
A single diffuser (two discs) will be plenty. Look on our site in the refurbished section for a Vertex Air One, I also have that same pump setup in a refurb minus the cabinet that we are just getting ready to put on the site for $369.00 (no tubing or shipping added yet) or we have new Eco 1 units for $594.00 lots of choices.
_________________________
http://www.cleanponds.com

I made a platform using 4" PVC pipe and FRP, mounted the diffuser to it to get it off the bottom.

I just spoke with Fla Parishes Farm Service, I can get Ag Lime for $51.50 / ton, he also said it would be $100.00 more for the truck to braodcast 2 tons Ag Lime into the pond. I just need to know how many tons I would need and setup a time and day to have it done.

Do you think I should put the Ag lime before attemping the Alum again? If so would I need to use the HY Lime?

You did the test incorrectly. You are supposed to dissolve 1 Tbl spoon full of alum in a jug. Mix throughly to make a slurry, THEN put diff. amounts of the slurry into new jugs of pond water.
What you did was apply roughly 1 part per 250 of alum by volume. The way I just mentioned is roughly 1 part per 250X250, or 1 part per 62,500.
I'm sure you are near to clearing the pond. With your low ph, I would put 20# more alum and 15 to 20 # quicklime. As I said in the beginning, adding alum is either an all or nothing proposition. As we have also stated earlier, ag lime is ground rock, thus wont do you any good in the short term. Very slow to dissolve. It wont do anything for the ph swing. It buffers the water to prevent quick and drastic ph changes that occur throughout the day. But takes a few weeks to start doing this.

As of thursday (yesterday) I have put 200# alum and 100# hy lime over three applications, 50#, 100#, then another 50#. The pond is begining to clear, a depth of 2' visibilty using white coffe cup on string. I still haven't seen and floc or clouding of water. Unless the pond went into total floc while I was picking up and washing equipment? It did seem to have a complete and total change in color to more of Clay Gray when I returned an hour later?

I know it sounds like I'm reaching and I'm not a chemist, would the fact that I use a sump pump to mix the dry with water and contiuously run the pump until all the slurry is sprayed into pond make a difference in the reaction of the chemicals, slow down or change the charge of the chemicals?

I wont get back up there until saturday but wonder if I should pick up more of each for a fourth application?

I measured the peremiter of the pond to better get a size. It is 280 linear ft. 280/4= 70. 70 x 70 =4900 sq ft times avg depth of 6' = 29,400 cu ft divided by 43,560 ac / ft = .675 ac ft. does this sound about right? What is the recommended amt of chemicals to use in 1 ac/ft? Secondly does the amt 200# alum and 100# Lime in .675 ac/ft I have already put in seem low?