I appreciate all the information that everyone has contributed here.
I'm about to attempt to clear up my 2 ponds, 1/2 acre each and separated by a narrow dirt road (now mostly grass). See pictures.
Last summer the ponds were fairly clear until late summer & early fall when they became filled with algae, to the point where blobs were floating around and visibility was maybe a couple inches. The algae disappeared over the winter (and I've added 6 grass carp to each pond about a month ago). But while the algae may have disappeared, the ponds have become muddy. We have had a fair bit of rain this year and the ponds fill with runoff from the nearby hills. Vegetation covers all the hills. I've done some digging with a backhoe around the ponds last fall removing some willow trees and building a small boat slip. I also put aerators in each pond, driven by a windmill. It seems that once I did all that work around the ponds is when it became muddy, but it's staying that way.
I drew out a gallon of pond water and let it sit for 2 days. It remains muddy with no accumulation of sediment. So I'm thinking that alum is the answer, but I would appreciate some help with that. I hope to spread the stuff from the shore line, spraying the slurry out into the ponds with a pump, a garden hose and a nozzle. I should be able to reach about 20 feet into the ponds from the banks. Is that sufficient? Also, if you'll look at the pictures, could someone venture a guess at how many acre-feet, or whatever, that I have?
And finally ... I read that one could buy alum at the grocery store so I got some. $4.54 per OUNCE!!??? And, I tried mixing 1 teaspoon in about 1/4 cup of water before I added that to my 1 gallon pond sample, but it's nothing like a slurry at all. It's clear. The alum looks like salt to me, and I thought it was a fine powder. What am I doing wrong here?
Appreciate all the help I can get.
(I hope the pictures appear in the order in which I've listed them here.) 1. Last summer's clear water. 2. Last summer's clear water #2. 3. Murky water now. 4. Jug of murky water. 5. Did digging the boat slip do it? (And digging up 30 willow trees.) 6. Pond depth measurements.
