Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water will turning aeriation off help muddy water

It came up in a earlier post about my muddy water. I have 0-4 inch visibility and jar test confirm its suspended clay. Until I can get a gypsum treatment done could I turn off my aeriation for a week or two to see if it settles and clears some??? I have run my air EVERY day 24 hours a day for several years. Don't want to freak my fish out or have a oxygen crash but would sure like to see a little clearer water for a change!!

Do you know your water temperature? If it's cool "enough", turning off the aeration shouldn't be a problem.

Water temp is probably in the low to mid 70's. Would turning it off help clear the water?

Turning off the aeration will help some maybe a lot depending on bottom activity in the pond and amount and speed of wind action. Turn off the aeration and monitor depth of water clarity with a secchi disk, any white plastic disk attached to a broom stick or an all white coffee cup.

I turned it off at 8pm tonight Bill. Forgot how quiet it is with no aeriation running! I made a secchi disc out of the bottom of a 5 gallon white bucket...8 inch across. I even quartered it and painted it black and white. I have a weighted line on it. That's what I have been using for several years now. How soon would you think I should see a change? 2-3 days? More?

Flame since your pond is low and you r turning off the aeration, it might be a good time to build some stands to set the diffusers on before returning them to the pond. My aeration did stir up the ponds bottom until i got them off the ponds bottom. I used rebar and a wielder to build a table 26" high. And when u set the diffusers on them the bubblier is another 10" or so tall making the whole setup around 36"+- . Also may have helped making a cooler refuge on bottom during the summer months. Rebar is pretty cheap and easy to work with. Just not sure how long it will last under water. Might be cheaper than Alum.

Flame - Time for seeing water clarity change is variable - "it depends". Wind action, bottom feeder species activity, and type and size of suspended particulates living, dead, and inorganic all play a role in how quickly the water will become measurably clear. It is possible that as the nonliving particulates settle out of suspension the fertility and increased light penetration could stimulate more plankton growth which in turn maintains or increases turbidity. Ponds are a collection of living dynamic systems that interact and constantly change. Do your secchi measurements on a regular and fairly consistent basis, record them, and these data will be a relatively standard for your specific pond. All ponds are different.

Thanks everyone. Tracy I may just build some "stands". With my pond as low as it is the water in the deepest part where the aeriation is is only about 9 foot deep. Putting that on a 3 foot stand may be too much? I suppose I could make total height about 2 foot right?

During the summer months my pond will lose a couple of feet in depth and maybe more when we have dryer years. I have not seen a problem having the diffusers off bottom. The diffusers will move my water on the ponds bottom even with the diffusers being 3' off bottom. Because of that I put three of the six diffusers pretty close to each other in the open, deeper water. About 60' apart from each other. It seems to be working fine when checking DO before and after making the changes.

Tracy, right now 9 foot IS MY DEEPEST water. I believe I followed your placement plan several years back. I have ALL 3 diffusers in the deepest part of the pond about 20 foot from each other in a triangle.

Flame my pond deepest is most likely around 7 to 9' right now depending on what section of the pond look at. Seperated by an underwater ridge or rd bed type structure. I cranked up the water well the other day but it takes a month for the water to come back up to normal.

Thanks Tracy, that helps me a lot for comparison. I thought your pond was a lot deeper than mine. My winter ryegrass after my new dirtwork on the watershed side is very full and already about 6-10 inch tall. it has held up to now 3 inches of rain we have had lately!!