Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Needing Help from the experts.

Wow, This is exactly what I wanted, several views on my situation but I hate to say this but I am very confused now. I guess I will put 2 tons of lime in then decide if it doesn't clear weather to go with gypsum or alum and how much.

Rainman, Tell me a little bit about Alum.
Can it be bought in liquid form to make it easier?
What would the cost be for liquid or powder form. I have
1 1/4 acre pond that averages 6 feet deep.
Where to purchase? Thanks,

Kelly Duffy with Helena Chemical is in the Houston area, and supplies powdered and granular Alum at a really good price. Liquid Alum is not cost effective, and unless a chemical supplier delivers, you will need a CDL with HazMat endorsement to transport/pick up.

Costs for dry Alum vary, but a "good" price, retail, is from $.60-$1.00 per pound. Hydrated Lime runs about $8-$12 per 50 pound bag.

Read through the how to parts of the Alum kicks clay butt thread to get comfortable with mixing and application if you DIY it.

Rainman, That is great info. If I purchased 300 lbs, could I get it mixed by slowly scattering from my boat and let the prop do all the mixing? How long would it take before I would see the water starting to clear? Thanks buddy.

Guys, I added 3000 lbs of Lime to my pond after I had my water checked and had a PH of 6.7 After the Lime it went up to 8.1
Will I be ok added 350 lbs of Alum to my pond. How much do ya'll think my PH will drop? Just def don't want a fish kill.
Thanks in advance.

I monitored my pH prior to adding the Alum and was pretty much consistent at 8.3. I added one Hydrated lime for every two sks of Alum and the pH dropped to a 7 during the alum additions and after the Alum additions. I would add lime when adding the Alum. Lime is cheap insurance. I can not make any recommendations but I can say this was my experience at my pond. Hope it helps.

What is the alkalinity of the pond now? Very high alkalinity could buffer the alum addition and prevent a large PH swing. With that said, I agree with Tracy, lime is cheap insurance.

Not a pro...just my 1 cent

Guys, If I do 1/3 of my pond at a time with Alum, how long do I need to wait to do the next third? Thanks,

I did a third of my pond at a time but I still did it all in one day. My pond is just over 3 acres. It turned out, I did not kill any fish that I know of. I broke mine down into one acre sections and did one section at a time, my thinking was giving a place for the fish to escape to. It worked pretty well I thought.