Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Spreading ALUM - approach and method(s)

1) When you spread dissolved ALUM is it essential to cover the entire surface of a pond or lake?

2) Say you do your best cover all the surface but only end up with 75% coverage. Does this mean that the 25% area you couldn't spray will stay muddy? Does the Alum sink to the bottom right away or mix around in the water column? Note I have a 4 station Vertex system in the lake designed by Vertex in all my deepest water and strategically placed for coverage around the whole "L" shaped pond (10.6 acres).

3) Does diluted Alum spread around the lake on it's own if you have multiple aeration stations around the pond / lake or does it just sink out wherever it is sprayed on the surface?

I don't have a barge to cart out and then mix 1 ton of Alum, just small 12' aluminum duck boats.

My idea was using a trash pump to add lake water to a 30 gallon trash can which I dump in one at a time a 50 lb. sack of ALUM. Once mixed and diluted I then reverse the hoses and using the trash pump, spray the diluted Alum back into the lake from shore out as far as the spray and then stop the pump and hand the hose to another guy and have him row out with the boat to the middle of the lake and spray there. Back and forth this would go and around the lake caring the trash can, bags of Alum and trash pump on the back of our flat bed truck. One guy mixes and one guy sprays Fromm shore and boat.

Does this seem like a fast, efficient plan to get this project done or is there a faster, better way?

4) Should I only do a small section of the 10 acre lake one day and then wait and do the rest the next day? From what I have read I don't think I will have a big PH swing that would be dangerous to my fish?

PH = 8, ALK = 220, HARD = 120

5) Last - is there anything wrong with putting in more than what the bucket test reveals is supposed to clear the water (based on my water chemistry listed above)?

It really would suck to have all the equipment and man power there to do the project and have not ordered and have on hand enough Alum to get the mission accomplished.

Thanks!

Hey yall! Just giving this thread a bump cause I've got lot's of the same questions and time is an element (suppose to spray next Fri)
Thanks Ken

BTW How in the heck have yall been? Good I hope!

I am novice on this but my understanding is the the better you mix and dissolve the the alum with water before you spray the more effective the treatment will be. If you have an old trolling moter you can put in your barrel/trash can, let it run for a bit before spraying.

IMO, this slurry-drum setup is the best option for smaller ponds. But, slowly "fire-hosing" aluminum sulfate over the edge of a flat-decked barge is much more efficient for larger ponds and lakes.

BTW: I provide this set-up for local customers' use.

Kelly,

That's the cat's meow set up. Are those uniseals where the pipes go in?

When I treated my .62 acre pond I located several trash cans around the pond at an equidistance. I put the alum power in the trash cans, filled with pond water, and stirred with a boat oar. Then I used a plastic pitcher and scooped the alum mixture out and broadcast it over the pond.

What about pumping the alum mixture into the boil of a couple of diffusers?

I'm assuming that the water enters the drum at the bottom with the roughly the same seal set-up? I like it!!!

Water is drawn from the perforated pvc pipe (hanging off of the transom), and pumped into the drum through twin venturi-jet agitators mounted inside of the drum - just above the drum's bottom. As the water-level inside of the drum reaches the bulkhead-fittings (2/3rds full), the dissolved aluminum sulfate slurry exits through the pvc pipe-extensions.

Note for Esshup: insure that the discharge pipes extend BEYOND the boat's gunnels.