DBW,

Not to worry about dispersing alum. It diffuses rapidly thorughout your pond in a matter of hours. Just for curiousity, I dumped a big pile in a corner of my pond. In 30 minutes, it was gone. It works by diffusion, the same way a drop of skunk odor can fill a huge gymnasium in 5 seconds.

Usually, chemically induced muddiness isn't nearly as bad as it looks. It looks awful, and like it would smother the fish. That's just not the case. I suspect that fish have to work a little harder to forage in a muddy pond, but I don't think it's real serious. I would guess the main problem with turbidity is poor spawning.

I have purposely thrown 10x the rate of alum than I should have into my small "experimental" pond. The fish and tadpoles never flinched, and still fed and grew happily. Just watch your pH and don't worry. If your pond is fished a lot, maybe your fish are getting a little hook shy.

Shrimp