Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Going to give alum a try

Well after 920lbs of gypsum I think I am going to try 50lbs of alum, the pond has cleared a little buut still muddy. I am going to add a couple hundred pounds of lime too just to be safe. Is it ok to mix the lime and alum or should I just apply the lime first then come back with the alum??

Starman- You are still short on your gypsum. The recommended 2000# per acre equals 1240 in a .62 acre pond. I would put in another 320# of gypsum and wait a week before I tried anything else. Things happen slowly in ponds. Patience is a virtue when putting any additive to your pond.

i would go with PFF's advice. give it time. my acre pond was real clear in spring , good 2'. buy early summer it was less than a foot. (busy fish) i wasn't very happy and the fishing sucked. i bought 2-50lb bags of alum sulfate(it was like the size of a BB) might use liquid next time. 50lbs of hydrated lime. i checked the PH level it was 6.8 on the test strip. i mixed 2 parts alum to 1 part hydraded lime. mixed 2 5 gal buckets at a time. the alum never really mixed like i wanted it to. put the buckets in boat and poured it slowly into the trolling motor to help spread it around some. also turned on the diffusers and poured some there. left them on all day and night. when we were doing this i keep checking the PH , it never changed. 2 days later the water was back to 2', sweet. the PH was 7.8 , also killed all the algea as a bouns. now i notice when the kids go swimming or a hard rain , she gets dirty again. next day she clears right up. i think it's because the alum never really dissovled that much when we mixed it. it's on the bottom and when the water get disturbed it attacks the supended clay. when the fish disturb the water same applies, ponds been nice and clear since i did it. so maybe the alum in BB size wasn't such a bad mistake. all i know is i'm happy , didn't loose one fish and the fishing is great.

An even distribution of 400 to 700 lbs per surface acre of aluminum sulfate can help clear it up of inorganic suspended solids...watch for your PH to drop.

update: after adding 50lbs of alum and 150lbs of hydrated lime I am seeing a nice difference, it is clearing a little every day. I think it was at the brink anyway, I probably just should have kept adding gypsum but I went the alum way.