My somewhat new pond has a constant grey and cloudy color to it. It has a blue clay bottom, limestone on two sides, a beach and the grass is pretty well grown up around it now. I posted my pond build thread in my signature for a link.

I dropped the disk in the water and I had around 20" of visibility. I also took a five gallon bucket of water, placed it in my barn and after 3 days it did settle out finally.

Is it just suspended clay from the wind action? Since it settled out on it's own, do I just need to wait until the vegetation starts growing to stop the resuspention of the fine clay?

Any thoughts?

Sounds like suspended clay particles, since it settled on it's own in the bucket you should be fine once you have vegetation growing.

Unless there is something in the pond or getting into the pond on a temporary basis that is stirring up the clay.

A neighbor had turbid water in his 1/4 ac pond. One single pair of Pekin Ducks was the culprit. Coyotes got the ducks, the pond cleared up in a few weeks.

Not sure if I have anything stirring it up. I do have the occasional ducks and geese that visit like any other pond.

My vegetation in the pond seems to be off to a good this year as it is the second growing season. I do have a bunch of cotton woods that I need to kill off though.

Thanks guys I'll just keep an eye on it.

Good point.

Sometimes I think my fish, especially the numerous larger GSH, stir up the banks a lot in my pond. This might be more than just a temporary basis, then there is my frog hunting dog.

Hoo ya Huntmaster just zipped through your build pond thread. That is the same clay I have here. This is some great stuff. I find even now I get that grey floating around after a rain. I am not sure what it is with the rain but I am thinking is chemical reaction. I can't keep a minnow trap in the pond or it will rust in three days. Brand new minnow trap will rust right away.

That clay is what gives it that nice blue colour as well. As the clay takes on more water in my case three years it will still go cloudy. Our grey clay has a PH of 8.5

Cheers Don.

I do have GSH in the pond, are they prone to stirring up the bottom?

Something does when I walk around the edge of my pond.

FWIW my frogs stir the water up pretty good when I walk around.

My bullfrogs and tadpoles do as well, I also have fish that stir it up as well when I walk around. I just assume they are large GSH since I have a very large year class of 6-7" GSH.

I was on a larger pond today, and the wave action from the wind stirred up the clay from the bank where there was no vegetation. There was turbidity out 30'-40' from shore in those areas.

Here's a couple pics of the water as it looked last night after a few days of calm weather. It continues to maintain its grey color. Earlier this year, we were inundated with rain that flooded the pond to two feet over the side walls for two weeks, so all of the edges were grass covered and the color maintained throughout.

That makes me think it is something other than the wind stirring up the bottom. I did just discover that I have BH's in the pond. Do they stir the bottom up causing this muddy water?

Bullheads are good at 'working' the sediments seeking food. Bottom aeration them 'pumps' those disturbed and suspended sediments/ colloidal clays.

I haven't done any aeration on the pond yet since it is fairly new yet. I figured that would be one of the next steps in my program.

Okay about no aeration yet. Your pond may become more turbid with aeration. It would be a good idea to make some water turbidity measurements this year and compare them to when you get aeration.

Well, one year later and the pond is still grey and visibility remains around 20" or so. After reading through a few more of these threads, it seems like it may be the bullheads that are causing my problems.

Any other thoughts on how to verify and cure the issue?

Huntmaster, I am hoping you can find the problem and educate us. I have the same issue in my MI pond. I was told by a not-so-helpful neighbor that a bullhead or two were bucket stocked in my pond. I have chocolate milk colored water as of 10 days ago whereas at ice out it was looking pretty clear.

I'm thinking bullhead, or crayfish. How many bullhead would you guess you have to remove? Did you stock papershells or have you been able to catch native crayfish that found their way into your pond with your minnow traps?

I don't know if juglines or trotlines work for BH but I don't have a lot of time for fishing with a bobber. Something I could leave and check later would be good, but I also have to worry about the desirable fish taking the bait too...

LMB nesting activity always clouds my pond. Are yours on the nest?

+1 I can always tell when the BG are nest building as those areas in the pond are very turbid.

I didn't stock any LMB, only SMB. With that said, I do know there is at least one LMB in the pond.

The entire pond is basically the same color and hasn't changed at all in the past year.

Well I'm no expert but even with BH's you would not have that kind of turbid water every day for an entire year?? Least I wouldnt think so.... I have all kinds of LMB , Big BG and Grass Carp and my water is clear as can be.... I can't believe a little ole 5 inch BH is doing that.... You would have to have thousands of them digging up the bottom all year long??? I don't know that don't sound right to me???

RC

If you take a jar of the water and let it sit for a few days does it settle out?

I found the pyramid style traps are really handy. They are easy to toss in, have several openings around them and can allow anything from tiny crayfish to larger fish be sampled. If you get a mix of crayfish you may have burrowing and nonburrowing crayfish (papershells not commonly reported to burrow or stir up the bottom) But bullhead alone may be the problem.

I'm not sure how to target them at once in large quantities. For my goldfish I'm trying to get them to come to one end of the pond for floating feed every day (or every day i can get time to feed them) and then set up a seine net across that area. My naive plan is to condition them and then close the opening to that area. Perhaps the bullhead can be conditioned to come in the feeding area and feed off the pellets that make it to the bottom?

Unattended trot lines might work with a hook size targeted for larger BH and a stink bait that may not be attractive to YP or SMB?

I too have GSH whose size have grown over the past few years and the timing of my turbidity may also correlate with the size of the GSH. However, last fall, winter and spring when water temps were cool the water was fairly clear. Not sure what to make of that unless it relates to the slower metabolism of the fish in general, or the crayfish in particular.

It is strange though because others with lots of crays in their pond don't necessarily have turbidity issues, and lakes I go to that are overrun with rusty crays (aggressive) have crystal clear water. So either the silt settles more quickly in a larger BOW or, those BOW do NOT have fish that I have. (for example, I know those bodies of water do not have GSH in them...)

Yeah, I mentioned it in an earlier post, but I did that with a 5 gallon bucket and in a couple days, it was good and clear. There was a grey clayish material on the bottom of the bucket.

I was going to go the alum route, but I saw a couple posts on here that mentioned if the clay settles out, then you have something in the pond causing it. Wind or fish???

Sorry, missed that you had already done a bucket test....

Only other thing I can offer is several weeks back we had some days of very high wind and it made my pond very muddy but it mostly settled out in 3 or 4 days after the wind quit.

Much of the surface water in southern MO has a gray, milky look. My guess is that it's caused by the limestone that is present throughout much of this State.

Bullheads can be easily caught by fishing with worms on the bottom. But other fish will take the bait too. You could throw out a handline and check it periodically to see how you've done. No need to stay with it, especially if you're catching only BH or nearly all BH. It's a simple thing to try.

Yeah, I wouldn't think that a 5" BH would be able to stir up the entire pond either and since it is basically always the same clarity when I walk around it, I figure it can't be the wind, because we do have calmer days. I have no idea, but that's why I'm here!

I put a larger fish trap in late last summer and I don't think I caught any BH, but was catching some other fish. I'll try getting that in again to see how many I catch in it.

If it settles out by itself in a container, then it's mechanical problems. If the shoreline is not vegetated, then it could be wind, but it would clear up on it's own. If it stays turbid for weeks, then I would say fish or something else.

A neighbor has a 1/4 acre pond and a single pair of Pekin ducks kept it turbid. He got rid of the ducks and it cleared up. So, yes, fish can keep it turbid too.

That's what I keep coming back to. Thanks esshup!

Not saying anyone is wrong here but just how many BH's would one have to have to keep a 1 acre pond all grey colored??? I guess that's one of those I would have to see it to believe things for me.... I been on a lot of small lakes and ponds in my life and I know they had BH's and never seen water like you have right now in them? I don't know not saying it isn't a contributing factor but I don't think it's the only thing doing it... that's just my OP... tho if you find out what it is let us know... I am curious now...

RC

RC51, I'm with you (at least thinking on the same lines)

If the stirring up is BH, how many lakes with tons of BH aren't stirred up at all.

TJ and I suspect our crays are doing it as we have all our vegetation denuded by crays and here isn't anything left for them to eat, so we assume they are stirring the bottom. But then why do not lakes in Canada that have natural rocks in them, billions of crays still have such crystal clear water you can see to the bottom? Is it the exact mix of the sediment in the bottom of our ponds? The mix of clay and sand that leads to the muddying of the water due to suspended sand/silt?

I have a variable that others don't have, goldfish, but why did my silt/grey water clear pretty nicely in the winter and go suddenly from clear to brown as weather warmed?

I don't have BG or sunfish to spawn so can't blame that.

many of us have GSH, shouldn't we all see a pattern if the GSH are stirring it up?

My pond is sheltered so wind isn't doing it.

My father in law insisted last summer that my aerator was doing it and told me to lift it off the bottom or turn it off. Did both of those things and currently the aerator isn't even hooked up and still have the chocolate colored water

It would all depend on the water's electric charge so to speak. If the water was easily muddied up and it would stay that way, then it wouldn't take many. My neighbors 1/4 acre pond stayed turbid with only ONE pair of ducks. Remove the ducks, pond cleared up.

My CC will even stir up the bottom when it is feeding time. They come near shore to get some of the AM400 I am hand feeding the small BG. I even sometimes put in some sinking catfish food so they will stir up the bottom and keep the nutrients from becoming sludge.

But this pond had a layer of topsoil put down before it filled and my sediment settles back out pretty quickly after they stir it up.

My old pond when cleaned out was clay. And the BH in it do stir it up and keep it a little turbid at times. The good side to that is, I have very little problem with FA growing on the bottom because of it. The pond does clear up enough to get a good algae bloom and generally healthy water. But I did have it pretty clear with lime treatment till I had a BH spawn and lots of small BH. Now it has become a little more turbid than it was. Waiting for the LMB to spawn and put the hurt to future BH generations.

An update here about grey water. I've been tossing around ideas for the past few weeks about what to do about grey/brown turbid water. There has been good debate on this thread about stirring action of CC vs GSH vs crayfish and in my case, possibly goldfish and crayfish. My traps won't catch crayfish. It is possible I don't have the right bait or the right traps, or there are very few adults to trap, but I keep trying.

It seemed overnight my water went very chocolate colored, almost like coffee with heavy vanilla creamer. Visibility was awful. I didn't put two and two together till yesterday. Yesterday I noted the water suddenly clearing in the shallows. We have had no heavy rains, no heavy wind action to cause the turbid color, why the consistent cloudy conditions in the water for weeks, and then now sudden clearing? I see now up to about 2' of water it is clear again and gets a bit cloudy as you go deeper.

I have been baiting, setting traps, checking them twice a day. I noted that my hands REEK last 2 weeks. It is a very unusual smell, not fishy, but very aromatic and earthy as the organic chemists would say. I noted I would wash my hands inside and that smell would linger.

I recall now that prior to fencing off our pond that the same smell would be on our dog when he swam in the pond and we could not wash it out.

Now with that unusual smell and the sudden clearing of the shallow water, I'm thinking I may have a brownish bacteria/algae bloom that I didn't recognize. Timing is right since the fertilizer machine came through about 3 weeks ago and the water went suddenly brown right after that.

So, I probably actually had a 2 week brownish/grey bloom going on. Not a bad thing afterall! Good timing too as I see these little critters at the surface which I believe are larval perch (stock photo attached, I saw them at night and couldn't get a good picture)

Also catching some 3" perch in the traps (last year after stocking apparently some females still pulled off a spawn, most waited till this spring though). Also catching a few leeches for the first times and some newts. A few PK shrimp are still in the pond (spotted at night with strong light and found in traps) too which is very glad tidings for me given the perch predation possibility.

Anyone else see a sudden clearing now?

Went back in records. Fertilizer went down on April 14. I noticed color change right around 7-10 days later at end of April.

In the 'jar test' suspended clay will settle. What will the brown bloom do, still settle? Will the brown pigment coat the bottom of the jar when it is settled?

canyon, I have really good luck with dry dog food (Iams large chunk) in minnow traps. Anytime I use that bait I catch at least one, There are only ~200 in 3/4 acre pond. Nothing on dried bread, fish food, canned cat food, or white styrofoam. Glad your water cleared. What are you using in the traps to catch the small perch?

Ben,
I started out right at ice out with dog food and I think my goldfish, perch etc were just hungry!! They all went in the traps. Then the bloom, or mud or whatever hit and it was like the lights were off. I tried 2 different style traps. My kids caught a perch and he didn't survive. I put the carcase in a metal style cylinder trap and after a week had 1 crayfish find it.

In a lake I fish where there is abundant crays, I use a filet BG carcass and it works wonders. Once I used the fat trimmings from some boneless chicken breasts and that worked great.

Back at home, I tried some meat scraps (table scraps of a ham dinner) No luck. Also no luck with bread or even tried a can of tuna fish with holes drilled in it.

Lately I've been using optimal fish feed and putting that in traps. I think the perch come to the feed area on the pond and clean up the feed after it sinks. I put the same feed in the traps and they seem to go in there and clean up the pellets.

Prior to optimal, I used what the fish farmer used and I think the perch were used to that, at least the adults were (Skretting steelhead food)

I'll try some dog food again, we have a few varieties in the garage.

I HOPE the pond is clearing, we'll have to see....
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oh, one more variable. The American Toad eggs have hatched and the edges are black with 'toadpoles' or I think they are called 'toadlets' Maybe by sheer numbers they are eating the 'haze' that is in the shallows.

Two years later and my pond is pretty darn clear now. We haven't caught any BH in some time (None last season) and the vegetation has filled in around the pond edges softening the wind erosion. So, not sure which one it was, but I'll take the clarity now.