Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New guy here

Hello , My name is Tony.
I live in East Texas in a Town called Leggett just North of Livingston .
So the story is , I purchased 40acres of timerland 2 yrs ago and cleared of around 5 acres .
I had a 3/4 acre pond dug the week of Thanksgiving in 2022.
The very next day they completed the pond, it rained and filled in a few small sections of the pond.
the pond is 12' at its deepest and around 5 in the shallow end.
Its rained off and on since then . The 2 of feburary my pond is completely full and flowing out the outfall but its completely brown from
the loose clay/ sand that never had time to pack in . In the past 3 weeks I purchased EcoBoost prX used the whole container
as directed for a 3/4 acre pond . of course it didn't do anything.
I just purchased fish 3 days ago and stocked it with 100 cats 100 bluegill, 12 lbs of minnows 25 lbs of fertiziler.
I also purchased 20 lbs of Gypsum and distributed it thru out the pond . still brown . I am here to see if anyone knows what can be done?

Is there dirty water running into the pond (laden with silt, etc.), or is it clear water going in, and THEN it becomes brown and opaque?

If the former, then get working immediately on fixing your land erosion problems.

If the latter, then read up on the jar test.

Here is a good link. With more data, you might be able to get some useful answers.

Jar Test - Clearing Muddy Water (Pond Boss Magazine)

Good luck on your new pond!

P.S. Good job on buying your place and clearing 5 acres of land!!

My advice would be to take a truck/trailer to Overton's hatchery around Buffalo/Centerville and load up a TON of gypsum for approx $160. Then get a small boat with a propellor and throw it into the prop wash as you circle the pond. But first, do the jar test. I'm only recommending this because I'm in the same boat with suspended clay particles and roughly 2 hours due north of you. Gypsum is cheap and works well. I'm sure you will hear others recommending to resolve the underlying issue...but I have a lot of red dirt on my 3 acre pond with steep banks, where seed won't grow, and leveling it is high $$$.
.
Gypsum works great and my pond clears up during the summer months.

First, welcome to the forum.

A few quick questions. Is the "brown water" clear or turbid, and if turbid, does it clear after the flow through water slows down or stops? What kind of timber do you have? Pines or Oaks? And finally, have you done a water test yet? If not, I would do that. Send you water sample to TX A&M, and be sure to add the "metal" option to the test. It is more expensive, but it will find iron ore if it's in the clay, and that can cause brown/red water also.

Texas A&M water testing

That is your water clarity goal?. If you get the water to clear up to your satisfaction, and with 125 CC per acre (100in 0.75) as these CC grow to over 16" do not expect to have clear water. If you do as suggested and go to Overtons ask them what is the normal water clarity to expect with 125 large CC per ac. With that many CC in 0.75 ac IMO do not expect the water clarity to ever be greater than 12"-16" due to re-suspension of bottom silt .

I read something about Gypsum last week somewhere. I had a piece of sheetrock , so I scraped a small amount into a water bottle
filled it with pond water , within an hour it settled to the bottom and clear water ontop. I do believe it will work ...but how much ? Is the question. I am getting it sprayed with hydroseed this week . Really hope it takes and I will have grass soon.

Thanks ,
Its a new pond , only 4 months old. I know what the problem is, It was dug and the next day it came a downpour. the ground never
had time to settle and pack in. I laid rye grass seeds but it was all washed into the pond.Now its full and the clay bottom is soft
where it squishes thru your toes, nasty. Tons of clay particles floating around and will not settle.
Spoke with a company that is pond and lake services . They said to first get grass around the pond to keep the clay dirt from being washed back into the pond, then try to clear the pond up. So I am going to hydroseed it this week .
thanks for the info though..

In your part of the world you probably need lime…. Take water sample to Todd/ Overton. Takes several months to clear …. But have to stop the erosion before anything will help

?