Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Clearing the pond with Alum

I don't know what happened to tbe price of alum but it used to be dirt cheap for me.

In our area of N.E. Texas we have clay and we have sandy clay.
We have turbid water and and will always have turbid water.
You can fight it and turbity will always come back.
Learn to work with it - we have drought conditions with low water causing increased fertility and muddy water.

It's not the best conditions for LMB but does grow trophy CNBG and HSB.
I just don�t worry about it.
G/

George, you guys need rain? In May, my buddy said his ponds were doing well.

Scott, we are in pretty good shape for going into hot summertime with pond being down only about 1 1/2 ft , but rain has been spotty - rain has missed Al's place, only 30 miles south.
Your friends lakes are in between...

Our biggest problem is fish swimming in poop - no flush for more than a couple of years.
G/

George, I have the same problem in my pond. I think that's why I have a more than normal problem with FA this year. Even with some plants growing in the pond, Tilapia, and water clarity more than I'd like to see, there is some FA.

Cecil--I am sure that I was buying through at least 2 middlemen to get the alum. I just wanted to do my dose and get the PH affect before I put fish in at the end of May. I will see if I can get the price down some as we go.

George--you are probably right. BUT, I am going to try to clear it in the fall after the weather cools some and I am not adding from the well. I want to verify that it is more mechanical (waves, dogs, rain etc)than due to the charge of the new water coming in.

For me it is also a treatment due to the well water being 9.0 PH that is being added in. I would like to temper that down a bit if I can.

Now if I can rig a system that would allow me to treat PH before the well water gets to the pond, that may be the most successful system I can run.

John

I publicly apologize for asking that stupid question. Scott, PITA is exactly the reason one shouldn't do it in stages. Lesson learned buddy.

Just chalk it up to another one of those life lessons!

Better to flock it out all at once if possible.

In my opinion, whatever flocculant is used, the goal should be to completely clear ALL solids in one rapid application. Anything less is, again, in my opinion, a complete waste of time and money. If you try gaining a "partial" clarity, you only set up the pond to get worse over and over again.

Don't you have to just keep applying alum to clear pond water? Doesn't it just treat the surface until a big critter makes the pond water muddy again?

Big Ponds, no. Alum, when applied properly changes the electrolytic imbalance causing negatively charged clay particles to suspend. Colloidal clay (fine particles) are negatively charged, so is the earth. The clay tries to settle out, but with both the earth and clay being negatively charged, the clay is repelled from the bottom, and other clay particles. Alum has a +3 positive ionic charge, lime has a +2. so combined, you have a high positive charge that attracts all the clay particles as the alum/lime fall through the water column to the bottom. The clay clumps up on the alum and gains more than enough weight to overcome the repelling force of the earth's negative charge. Once the ionic balance is restored, nature and plants will hopefully keep the water in a positive ionic state.

In a positive state, critters, and wind wave action can muddy the water up. but the particles settle right back out quickly.