I had a 1.8 acres pond dug nearly 20 years ago. I tried stocking it a few times in the early years but it would always leak down enough that I would get fish kills. I should add that the water has always looked like coffee with a touch of cream. Even when it was shallow and warm there has been virtually no plant growth in it.

Since it kept drying out I got mad at it and gave it the silent treatment for about 15 years. I don't know if it's possible for a leak to get plugged by clay particles settling on it over the course of a decade or so, but now it seems to hold water. Even in last year's record drought it had kept enough water that fish probably would have made it over the winter.

You can probably see where all this is going. I'm thinking of stocking it again, but would first like to do something about the dirty water. I should add now that I thought there were some bullheads in it, but my wife and I tried fishing for them the other night and didn't get a bite. I was thinking of adding alum now to clear the water and maybe kill any bullheads, and then check the PH in the spring, adjust it if necessary and stock. But, will the alum still be keeping the water clear next spring or should I wait until then to add it?
My main reason for wanting to do it now, is that the water level is lower then it most likely will be in the spring.

Could also be your bullheads keeping it murky with mechanical stirring.

Have you done the jar test?

I would start your search for alum to clear the pond ASAP. I have a friend who has been looking for an alum supplier to clear his pond and he ran into some road blocks finding a supplier locally. The place I got mine two years ago wasn't much help to him when he checked last week. I talked to him yesterday and he thought he had a good lead from Midland Scientific out of Omaha but was still waiting for a call back from them.

If it were me I would also plan on ordering some extra just in case you need to give the pond a second treatment later on.

Richard

I'd nuke it with Lime now with low water volume and remove all fish. Josh and I and maybe Steve and Condello can help you with that. Then we see if the water clears up. I'm hopeful this is due to high BH population keep bottom stirred up. If not, we do alum treatment until clay particles bind, fall to bottom, and water clears. Don't need to worry about exactly measurements with Alum since you have no fish to worry about. Easy.

Bocomo-There have been times over the years when it had no fish in it, do to having dried out, and it still got muddy when it filled up again.

TJ- lime rather than alum?

Shorty-Did your alum contact at Waverly Coop not come through for you?

My friend struck out at the Waverly Coop.

Good point, Richard...if Alum in high concentrations will kill fish, you could knock out two potential issues with one heavy treatment.

However, here's my thinking: If lime is easier to source, and cheaper, why not treat with it first as you may not even have a turbity problem once you nuke your pond and remove the fish. Could clear up in a matter of days, then no chasing Alum or $ spent if it's hard to source and expensive.

Makes sense either way you pursue it I think - and my offer for Josh and Steve to help still stands.

Definitely down for some bullhead eradication!

You're talking real bullies, right? Richard is a good guy, after all.

Yes, to clarify. Not in the business of offing fellow Pondmeisters.

Richard, if you want to sterilize the pond of fish with only Hydrated Lime, it will turn your water gin clear.

If I do it now, what can I except next spring? I'm sure that it depends upon the amount of water that goes in and out by then, but can I expect the lime to still be keeping it clear?

How much water is currently in the pond?
If you pump it down low, you can theoretically nuke it with a pretty small amount of lime, then [with a little luck] as it fills, the lime will be diluted, and you can stock soon. Al did this pretty recently with good effect in his forage pond.

I would have to get out there and probe around, but a WAG would be that there's about 8 acres feet of water right now.

Does the pond lie in such a way that it could be siphoned? I'm pumping down a 1/2 acre, 6 foot deep pond, and it does take a while, but if you could construct a siphon with 2" or 3" PVC you could do it quickly.
If not, I'm just about to have a 3" trash pump I can stick in a box for you!

If I were to concentrate on that for now, how many pound of lime would I need per acre foot?

Send Rainman a private message so he won't miss the thread.

Done. If I get an answer I'll post the answer here so that others can learn.

I have no personal experience using hydrated lime for this use other than in a few ponds that were drained first.

Todd Overton and a couple fish farms I know use Hydrated lime as a way to ensure a total fish kill when changing species. As I recall, Todd adds lime until the water turns Gin clear as his barometer for enough having been used...so did the other fish farmers. No real science there, and I would be GUESSING, 1-2 thousand pounds per acre foot of water.

I found hydrated lime at Mennards. Bagged it runs about $ .17 a pound. If I went with the 1000 pounds an acre foot,that would be $1360. Seems like a lot to maybe clear a pond and kill fish that might not be there. I'm going to check with the local Coops to see if they can sell it to me in bulk.

You should be able to find someone who will deliver and spread for much less than that.

EDIT: nevermind, that's Ag Lime.

I buy it from a local Farm Coop for about $13.00 per 50 lb. bag. When my 1/10th acre fingerling production ponds are completely drained (well mostly as there is always some water left) a couple of bags shoveled on to the wets spots completely kills any fingerlings or tadpoles left over.

Not sure if that helps.

You can monitor pH as you add hydrated lime and when it gets above 11 you should be ok. Hydrated lime does not stay in the system long (couple weeks) depending on your pond parameters. Check pH. as it goes down and when it gets below 9 you are good to go.

Will the hydrated lime have any residual water clearing affect?

Richard I think once you remove those BH the pond may clear on it's own. Do you recall ever seeing the pond clear in the past? If so I think you have a good shot of seeing it clear again once you nuke the fish responsible for turbidity.

No, it has never been clear from the time the first molecule of H2O hit it.

Outside of roasting the bullhead, not likely to have a lasting affect.

Richard, if turbidity has always been a problem, do you think that's because of the resident BH population or an ionic imbalance?

If the latter, you're probably better off starting with Alum from the beginning so you can both nuke the resident fish population and also clear the water. Good news is you don't have to worry about over applying and damaging the fishery - as that's one of your goals. Lusk has stated multiple times that while Alum is a great tool for restoring ionic balance, over application will kill fish. For you, it's a bonus ancillary effect.

It's definitely ionic. Now I just have to find a local alum supplier.

I'm not sure an over-application of alum is a danger...mis-application sure is....such as adding the hydrated lime first, or not at all......

Alum should be available in Omaha and I know it is in St, Joseph, Mo

I have a similar problem. When I had it dug, we went deep. Her in our area, there is a layer soil called "hard pan" which is dead organic material that is rock hard. The rest of the area is sugar sand. As the waqter level came up to the hard pan it slowly started to leach out the hard pan giving the water a tanic look to it. After throwing Lime and alum at it over the years, I come to the conclusion that it was always going to be tanic looking and I would just manage what I had. It has been doing well for the past 10 years until two months ago when I had a mass kill of due to low O2 concentration. Lucky for me I caught it before I had a complete pond fish kill. I lost almost all of my large channel and albino cat fish. I had hundreds of turky vultures cleaning up the kill. looked like an apocalyptic event.