Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water alum treatment - hydrated lime needed?

Ideally you should have done the jar test with alum and found how much was needed to clear the jar, then do the math to see how many pounds of alum you needed for the volume of water in your pond.

When I've done alum treatments with Rex Rains, the alum started to flocculate, grab the clay and precipitate to the bottom of the pond. If you don't see the alum flocculating, then I'd continue to add more, and keep testing pH. Alum will drop the pH, sometimes to dangerous amounts and the hydrated lime will raise the pH back.up.

We applied the hydrated lime first in bands across the pond, leaving 10-15 feet between the bands. Then applied the alum 90° across the bands of hydrated lime slurry. Flocculation started almost immediately.

Alum and hydrated lime were mixed in large tanks (not together in the same tank) and pumped out as the boat traversed the pond.

pH testing was done prior to applying anything and we tested during application. We didn't want the pH to vary more than 0.5 from initial reading.