Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Alum is not working. What am I doing wrong?

I have a 3/4 acre pond. I did the jar test it's definitely cloudy because of clay. My average depth is roughly 5.3 feet. I cut the pond into quarters both long and wide and measured it. So roughly 4 acre feet is the calculation I'm going off of. I did a 1 gallon and a 5 gallon alum test. 6 TSP of slurry equivalent worked in both in 12 hours no problem.

I've now added 1050 lbs of Alum and almost 0 noticeable difference. The water appears less brown and more green and maybe a tad clearer at the top 8 inches or so.

The first 600 or so lbs I was adding 30% hydrated lime right after it. The remaining 450 lbs I didn't add any hydrated lime as my PH was only getting to 6.5.

I haven't had any rain and my shores are very much taken over by vegetation. I'm not diluting the alum with very much water I was thinking possibly that's an issue? How many gallons of water vs alum should I be mixing? I'm only doing about 50 gallons of water per 100lbs of alum.

maybe it's sinking too fast?

My next question is there a time limit on when I can just add more or have I completely wasted the first 1000 lbs of alum? I can't get more for a week and I was thinking if I can just add 300lbs at a time I can just keep going until it works or do I have to do it all in 1 sitting?

What should my next move be? I feel like I'm just throwing a ton of money away.

Thank You

I am not sure but doubt 100 lbs of alum can be dissolved in 50 gallons of water. Its OK if not, as long as your pump suction intake is held above the "sand" in the bottom of the barrel. ie: just pump out liquid without sucking up "sand". then add more water and stir it up again before pumping out. 100 pounds of alum in the bottom may take several "batches" of new water to dissolve it all. I assume you are spraying it out over the surface of the pond.

I did a version of Kelley Duffie's post on here years ago, where you have a continuous supply of fresh water being pumped into the bottom of a barrel. Then 2" pipes out the sides of the barrel so the water with dissolved alum gravity flows out of the barrel over the sides of the boat into the water. Alum is slowing poured into the barrel. My agitation in the bottom of the barrel was too aggressive on "high flow" such that is caused my coarse alum to boil up and out the side pipes. I had to slow the water down and thus slow down adding alum. Just idled the boat in loops around the pond while someone slowly poured alum into the barrel.

After 5 months I am still really happy with it. Its a real pleasure to see bluegill and bass cruising around. Wife has a 14" bass trained to come up for grasshoppers. Saw four broods of 2" long bass last weekend. Never would have happened with 8" visibility muddy water. Pond was built fall of 2017.