Originally Posted by ted_1209
I like your net analogy Snipe. That’s a helpful mental model. So to come back to my original question, perhaps Alum dissolves, but really it sinks. So when you’re creating an alum slurry what you’re effectively trying to do is spread out a “liquid net” that will fall through the water column to the bottom pretty quickly, but hopefully “catch” (ie flocculate) and pull down the clay with it as it falls. You need a high enough concentration of alum so that the “net” catches all the clay as it descends through the water column. If you don’t use enough your “net” will miss a bunch of clay particles, and so you’ll simply have to throw in a “second net” with “smaller holes” (ie a higher dosage) to try again. Is that correct?

If so any thoughts on dosing? I plan to do a jar test and see what minimum it takes to clear the water, and then perhaps do 50% more than that. Does that make sense?

I also only have minnows at this point so wondering if I can get away without buffering with ag lime. My thought was to test the ph in my jar test and see what the resulting ph is and decide from there.
Probably going to be about 200-250lbs per acre ft. and I would still use type S hydrated lime because it adds more sinking power to the particulates-besides just being a buffer-and it's cheap.
Remember, it's not Ag lime, it's hydrated (type S) lime. If pH is above 7.8 you may not need it as a buffer but it's a big part of pulling suspended particulates down.

Last edited by Snipe; 07/11/23 10:56 AM.
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