I've been told that putting one large round bale of hay per acre will help get rid of the colloidal clay particles. This is coming from a guy that sells fish and seems very knowledgeable in pond management. Just wondering if anyone else has done this or knows why it works?

Adding Hay to clear turbid water is a shotgun approach similar to going to the pharmacy when you are sick and just start buying stuff off the shelf. My question is -will the fish seller guy refund your hay bale money if it doesn't work. It not,,, I would highly question his info. Hay can work to clear water but often it does not work. It depends. If you are a gambling man then try it without any of the needed homework learning for clearing turbid water. If you use the hay or straw I would not just put the whole compact bale in the water.. If it were mine, I would separate the bale so water better infiltrates more of the hay to allow better what ever chemical action that is to happen can take place for more or better hay surface leaching action.

Have you researched the threads in our Forum section clearing muddy water??

Have you performed a jar settling test? See next post.

What kind of hay?

For lots of good information to clear muddy water. Spend some time going through all the post. You will be much wiser about turbid for it.
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=16&page=1

I have a bunch of old bales that wouldn't cost me anything other than time to go get. The pond is new and just now filled to withen one foot of full. Its going to be 3 1/2 to 4 acres and I spread 12 tons of ag lime on pond bottom. It held about 1 acre of water all summer. The PH was 8 and I don't remember the exact alkalinity but I think it was good. Now and there is still water running the PH is 7 and Alkalinity is 2 DKH. The test uses 4ml water 4 drops out of one bottle and 1ml drawn into syringe and then drops added until color changed, you then read what is left in the syringe. Which I now realize as writing this that I probably read it backwards because I didn't add hardly any drops before color changed.

He didn't specify the kind of hay, but I told him I had access to some old bales and he said the older the better will break down quicker. I would guess its bahaya sorry for the spelling.
I may need to do some more research the only thing I have found so far is adding AG lime but my PH is good and will probably go up a little more. I will check out the link Theo sent.

I did read the link Theo sent and now remember I had already read about adding alum and even asked a AGFC fisheries biologist about it and he didn't seem to keen on it or at least didn't know if I needed it. I'm definitely going to have to start taking notes and keep a journal on my pond. I'm saying I have suspended clay but don't really know I have done the jar test and the water is a light tea color after 2 weeks it maybe a little clearer but very little sediment. I collected another sample today and took a picture for comparison. I'm going to build a sechi disc so I can track the clarity

Barley straw, not "hay" is what is used to clear turbidity....It often does not work, and adds acid to the water as it decays. FWIW, fish farms are rarly knowlegable pond managers of sportfish ponds, since production ponds are managed in nearly opposite ways than what sportfish ponds need. How old is the pond? Is there obvious bank erosion from wind/wave action? Can it flood or have a chance Bullhead catfish, whit suckers or common carp got in the pond? I have previously cleared 2 muddy ponds in Malvern... one had trash fish, the second had heavy wind/wave action as the causes for turbidity

Do white suckers stir up mud to a significant amount?

Apparantly so, as a 4 acre pond in Searcy AR a client paid to clear 3 times had lots of them in it...After a flood it was drained and the trash fish cleaned out....I'd told the client it was fish causing the turbidity, but he didn't want to believe me

White suckers root in the bottom for invertebrate foods. White suckers need stream conditions for successful spawning - egg hatching. Basically white suckers are raised using same hatchery methods as walleye, trout, and salmon. Bait dealers in MN and WI would love to know how to get white suckers to reproduce in small ponds.

2-3 suckers per acre are IMO not enough to to cause noticeable turbidity. However 6-10+/ac adult white suckers will start causing turbidity. The more suckers and redhorse that are present per acre expect more turbidity.