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#413057 05/27/15 09:02 PM
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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?


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



Shorty #413064 05/27/15 09:59 PM
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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.


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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.


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esshup #413136 05/28/15 11:23 AM
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Originally Posted By: esshup
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.


grin

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. wink



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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

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Shorty #413155 05/28/15 02:55 PM
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Originally Posted By: Shorty
Sometimes I think my fish, especially the numerous larger GSH, stir up the banks a lot in my pond.


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


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



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


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Bill D. #413167 05/28/15 04:18 PM
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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.



Shorty #413186 05/28/15 08:00 PM
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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.


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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?





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

Last edited by Bill Cody; 07/28/15 01:56 PM.

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Originally Posted By: Bill Cody
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.


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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.


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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?


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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...

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

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Originally Posted By: Bocomo
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.


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Originally Posted By: canyoncreek
I'm thinking bullhead, or crayfish. How many bullhead would you guess you have to remove?

No clue, but we probably caught and kept 40-50 last year, all in the 5-6 inch range.

Did you stock papershells or have you been able to catch native crayfish that found their way into your pond with your minnow traps?

Stocked papershells


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Originally Posted By: Bocomo
LMB nesting activity always clouds my pond. Are yours on the nest?


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


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Bill D. #446902 05/10/16 03:33 PM
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Originally Posted By: Bill D.
Originally Posted By: Bocomo
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.


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


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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

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The only difference between a rut and a Grave is the depth. So get up get out of that rut and get moving!! Time to work!!
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If you take a jar of the water and let it sit for a few days does it settle out?


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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...)

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