If the problem is organic, it may just be a temporary problem and if it is not, aeration and bacterial augmentation can be used effectively to correct this type of situation.

Most water clarity problems are inorganic, consisting of suspended dirt and clay particles. Alum or Buffered Alum can be used to drop out these particles to the bottom, however if the source of the problem is not corrected, this type of treatment will only work for a very short time before the problem reoccurs. There are three main sources for this type of problem:

Bare Ground

Bare ground in a ponds watershed, can wash substantial amounts of clay particles into the pond when rains occur. The most common situation is when there is new construction in the ponds surround area. The best way to prevent this, is to insist that any new construction site use silt fences to keep the muddy water from washing into your pond. If this is your problem, there really is nothing that can be done to clear up the pond until the bare ground has been seeded and has ground cover or until the proper silt fencing has been added. Once the source of the clay particles has been eliminated, the particles may eventually settle out by them self, if not the Alum or a Buffer Alum can be used to drop them out to the bottom. Regular Alum is normally used when a pond has no fish, if the pond has fish it is best to use a Buffer Alum to make sure you do not drop the pH of the water enough to adversely affect the fish.

Trash Fish

Fish like Carp & Bullhead can rile up the bottom of the pond, causing the same problem as the open ground, even over populations of Blue Gills can create this situation. There are two ways to correct this problem, one fast and one very slow. Eliminating the existing fish population and restocking with more desirable fish, will clear up the situation very quickly. If you do not wish to eliminate the fish population, building up your predator fish base (Bass and Catfish) will eventually reduce the numbers of the more undesirable fish, this process can take many years.

Heavy Rains

Heavy rains can create a situation where your pond water will turn over, the top waters in most ponds is much warmer than the bottom waters, a heavy cold rain can cold off the warmer upper waters, creating a turn over in the pond. This turn over can bring up bottom sediments creating a water clarity problem. Usually when this happens, the water will clear up on its own in a couple of weeks. If it don't clear up, then the Alum compounds can be used to take the suspended particles back down to the bottom.

Root Beer Ponds

Root Beer ponds is not a technical term, but we use it for lack of any better way to describe this condition. The water in a root beer pond, has the coloration of root beer, this condition is caused by tannins in the water. Tannins come from decaying leaves and other vegetation, and this type of pond coloration is usually found in ponds that are fed by bogs or marshes or in heavy forest. To our knowledge there is no way to correct this coloration, but it should be kept in mind that the tannins in the water do not represent any health hazard or mean that you do not have good water quality.

If you have a water clarity problem, and have some questions, by all means give us a call or send us a message.

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