Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Muddy Water

I have a 1 acre pond, it is located up aginst an oak woods that has a steep drainage of about 10 acres. Two winters ago I drained it down 4 feet and had the muck cleaned out around the edges with a back hoe. Last year it wouldnt clear up but I assumed it was runoff from the dirt moving.I have always had some problems with muddy water. I have seeded and fertilized the sides and now have good grass.The pond is still muddy (August) 4 inch visability.
I believe the problem is the wet weather stream that flows into the pond when it rains. This year we were blessed with numerous 3-6 inch rains. The drainage is all heavily wooded but the stream bed washes clay and last years leaves from the creek sides when we have a cloud burst.
I have felled a 16 inch tree across the end of the pond and stacked brush,cut more trees and limbs to allow sun light to shine and even planted cattails in the shallows to try and controll the silt.
Has any one ever tried a sediment pond ?
I am considering tring this.
I have spoken to a professional pond guy he says I have colodial clay suspension , yes the clearant will work but you will get more clay the next time it rains.
I am open for suggestions.

We put obstructions in our stream to slow the water, and planted bermuda grass to hold the dirt in place as the water washes across it. So our answer was to prevent dirt from washing in.

Your answer is the depth of the lake........I am sold on this. 4' of water with suspended clay will never clear permanently. You need to make some deeper water for those particles to settle, or else, you are fighting a losing battle. I know, been fighting the same problem for 5 years......

With suspended clay, you must make the clay heavy enough to sink. This is done by adding either lime for gypsum, depending on the area that you are in. You need to have a sample of your water tested. They can tell you which you need to add, depending on your area and water.

If they tell you that you need gypsum, you simply go and add a couple of hundred pounds by walking around the bank or floating around in a boat and distributing it with a shovel. Then go back about a week later. If the water is still cloudy, add a couple of hundred more pounds. Wait a week, keep doing this until it is clear. But you need an analysis to determine which you need, lime or gypsum.

Thought I ought to clarify a bit. You need to have your water tested for PH levels. If it is low alkalinity, you add lime. If high, add gypsum.

You can have it tested. You can buy a test kit for a few dollars and do it yourself. Or you can get a couple of quart jars of pond water and add a small spoonful of lime to one and gypsum to the other. Depending on which goes clear, you will know what your pond needs. Get lime and gypsum at your local farm supply store. Both are cheap.

Time for science class boys and girls. I had to research this for myself, now that I have done the research, here are the results. (if you care)

Water has the ability to be ionized. That is, to be charged with a positive or a negative charge. Water that is too acid, with a pH value of less than 7, has too many positive charges; or too much hydrogen in the hydrogen/oxygen mix.

Water that is too basic, with a pH value of more than 7, has too many negative charges; or too much hydroxide in the hydrogen/oxygen mix.

Water that is too acidic needs lime (a strong base) added. Water that is too basic needs gypsum added.

In electromagnetics, like charges repel and opposite charges attract. If your pond is muddy and will not settle out, the entire pond is charged, either negatively or positively. This keeps the clay particles in the water in suspension. They repel from the bottom, thus will not settle out. You have to add lime or gypsum in order to bring your pond's pH into balance so that there will be no charge on the molecules and the particles of mud will not repel from the bottom.

I heard all of this from Bob Lusk once, while having lunch with him at a fishing show. Twas over my head then, tis over my head now. But I wanted to research it again and try to understand it better.

Bottom line is whatever you do it's a temporary cure whether it be gypsum, lime, or chemicals (alum). If you don't correct the problem (ie: shallow water, bare soil) the problems will just start all over again. Every pond/lake is different, and in our case it was a combination of suspended clay, shallow water, and extremely high watershed with way to much water being introduced after heavy rains.

It's not to much of problem to treat a small pond, but larger lakes it's almost impossible to keep them clear if you have shallow water and suspended clay.

In our case it was drain and dig.......we now have lots of new vegetation on the bottom of the lake, deeper water, and a channel (9'deep) for the sediments to deposit.

Will this work?? I will let your know soon.....

Thanks for all of the information guys! I have a lot of water over12 feet deep almost 50%.
Yes I also have a lot of run off for the size of the pond, it is the steep topogrophy that kills me with fast runoff. We had 8 in" of rain here last weekend and the water is chocolate brown.
Five years ago I put half a single axle dumptruck load of ag lime in the pond.When I had it cleaned out two winters ago they used a back hoe to clean the muck out around the edeges and make it deep next to shore . I noticed that there was a lot of lime in the dirt that was dug out but never gave it a thought. We excovated all of the lime out and I am now in a acidic state causing the mud to float and not settle out I will test it but I am confident it will need to be limed.
Another concern is the oak tannin in the water before it got muddy it was the color of tea . With arreation It cleared up by late summer the oak leaves would rot away and with fresh comming in the tannin would fade away.
Any ideas on removing oak tannin stain it is so dark weeds wont grow in watter less than 12 in. deep? Thanks for the ideas Bob M.