I have about a 2 acre pond that stays muddy and murky. Can't see more than a couple inches depth. Trying to stock with bass. Suggestion on a product to help clear things up?

Victoria area, brown/tan clay mud. Not water well fed. Little to no foliage.

Thanks for any help!

I had the same problem due to clay suspension. Read this for how to test and how to treat. I added gypsum and cleared mine up great.
https://mdc.mo.gov/improve-your-property/habitat-management/pond-and-stream-management/ponds-water-quality/clearing

Always heard the larger the size of the gypsum, the longer it will last. Most companies just use powder. Gypsum rock is supposed to be slower to work but last longer. But its harder to find.

Establishing any type of vegetation will help. I have two ponds on the same property/ same runoff and soil. One is older and full of cattails and clears up quickly after a rain. The other is new with no vegetation and has no visibility.

I have the ability to augment our lake level by pumping from another pond that stays really clear. Oddly it doesn't have much vegetation. Our MCD biologist told me if the lake muddy ups after a hard rain to pump some water from the pond to the lake and it will make the lake clear up without adding gypsum again.
I have tried it and it works as he said.
His reasoning was something about the clay particles attaching themselves to the water molecules and not falling out of suspension…..and the water from the pond will change that.
So once I cleared it up with gypsum it's been easy to keep it clear with the pond water pumped in.
I was able to get gypsum pellets instead of the powder initially.

Iv'e cleared up several ponds with powdered gypsum and it lasted for years . The powdered gypsum works faster because it dissolves in the water more quickly due to much more surface area per lb. Having said that , the amount of gypsum I had to use was always more than the amounts calculated based off of bottle testing . I'm not sure why but i have seen it take double what you calculate based off bottle tests . I suspect it's because some of the powder lays on bottom and doesn't dissolve in the water column immediately , and that may be why the treatment has lasted so long as well. I overdosed to get the pond cleared more quickly thus leaving residual gypsum that continued to work even as new turbid water came in and clear water was decanted downstream.

For a first pass estimate of gypsum quantity required get a gallon of water and add powdered gypsum a little at a time ( stir with a spoon as you add the gypsum) until the turbidity drops out. Edited to say mix in an amount while stirring , leave it for at least 30
Mins , check it and see if you get suspended particle dropping out and improved clarity , if not , add some more powdered gypsum and repeat the process until you get the desired effect . This will get you a lbs gypsum per gallon of pond water required and then of course you need an estimate of how many gallons your pond holds which you need to calculate based on a depth survey . What i did was came up with an estimate of average pond depths and multiplied x surface area to get a total volume . This could also be a source of error in my gypsum required as the total pond volune may have been off as well.

I have tried several powdered gypsum deployment methods as well. At the end of the day just throwing powdered gypsum into trolling motor prop wash a cup/bucket at a time was what worked best . Takes quite a bit of time . Move around the pond as you deploy the gypsum to get even distribution and spend more time in the deeper parts vs the shallow.

I also note that when it rains and I get temporary turbidity due to runoff it clears a lot faster in warmer temps than cold temps.

Once you get your water clear you'll get more vegetation in the shallower areas which is good for forage fish/crawfish. It will supercharge your biopyramid with the bass at the top. Water turning greenish also is a positive imdicator as it shows the plankton population is improving . Plankton feed the forage critters and the forage critters feed your gamefish.

If your'e trying to get big bass then consider stocking some smaller fish like coppernosed bluegill or blue tilapia or both. The bass love to eat the young fry and the tilapia particularly produce a lot of fry. In a 2 acre pond stay away from stocking crappie imo as they compete (and beat) bass for forage fish. If you have green sunfish they also compete with bass. I'd suggest you thin out any green sunfish population as much as you can. They tend to dominate. I haven't seen this but have heard of older ponds where green sunfish eliminated all competitive predators just with numbers of fish and that thousands of stunted greens had to be removed to make room for other species. Have seen pics to prove it but haven't personally seen it.

Biggest pond I have done was slightly over 2 acres and I took it from 4" visibility to over 30". I don't remember how much powdered gypsum i used but it was over 3000#. It was still clear 14 yrs after I treated it and then I sold the property and haven't been back to it . We stocked with Florida bass and copper nosed bluegill and a few channel cats . I know it has produced at least 3 bass over 8# . We stocked with tilapia as well but the freeze in 2021 killed them. They can't survive for long in water below 50F

Ultimately the gyp treating cleared a 3 acre pond immediately downstream as well which probably speaks to how much I overtreated my pond. The downstream
Pond wasn't nearly as turbid to begin with tho.

No idea if it really works but I recall my grandpa putting some hay in the pond to help clear it up.

That's what I was going to say, in my biologist years with TPWD we would ask pond owners to throw in a couple of bales of hay and see what that did. The pond owners were often surprised at results. I would use the bottle of sampled water first to determine whether you have a suspended solid problem or a colloidal dispersion. If it is colloidal then the problem is more chemically related and thus more difficult to clear up. We have had lots of wind and that stirs things up. Some ponds will hardly ever clear up because of substrate they were built on.

Hay will often work but you have to be careful and not add too much such that it will cause low dissolved oxygen problems, especially during warm water temps. It might be useful however to know whether you have a concentration of fish (such as catfish or carp) that stirs up bottom sediments or whether the muddiness is caused by wind or rain only.

Hay might work but as you say, it can deplete the oxygen levels and cause a fish kill as well. Jmo, there's
Less biorisk with gypsum albeit a lot more work and cost . Hay generally won't solve a more severe suspended clay issue either . If visibility is persistently only a few inches I would bet on suspended clay being the prime issue particularly in that part of the country.

I have not seen a suspended colloidal clay particle issue that can't be solved with gypsum albeit how much gypsum is needed and at what cost is a whole different question.

Do sheetrock scraps work if you don't have other sources of gypsum? I seem to recall Dr. Mil Ford saying something about that being a frees source of calcium for flower beds.

I can't say this is true because I have never used it but I have read there can be other chemicals and also fiberglass strands in sheet rock that you may not want in your pond.

Works as flocculant.

We had great results with gypsum. Did the above water test to confirm. Had three tons delivered from henneke fish farms. Added about 1 ton to a 3/4 acre pond. We had a floating pier with an aerator (big pond aerator) at the end of the pier. We took a wheel barrel and dumped it over the moving water and it was clear by the next day. However, we did have a bad algae bloom the first year. Too much organic material built up over the years is our best guess. The algae loved that clear water. We kept the aerator running to avoid oxygen depletion and let the bloom run its course. We had some the following years that weren't bad. The first one turned the water into pea soup.

OnlyForNow said:

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Works as flocculant.

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That's the bottom line. There needs to be free calcium out there to bind with the clay particles and promote floculation. You have some seriously soft water working.

Any gypsum sources?

I buy large quantities of powdered gypsum from BWI. We mix powdered gypsum into bulk soils to increase calcium. They seem to have pretty good coverage over Central Texas

That would be a lot faster than the deployment method I have used . It took me over a month working a few hours a day after work to deploy gypsum off a John boat into the trolling motor prop wash on a 2 acre pond.

I also used gypsum in holding ponds on well pads and frac ponds being constructed in Pennsylvania. Penn DEQ was very particular that the water pumped offsite not be turbid water . It was probably less than 1/2 acre and not deep. In that case we just threw a few hundred pounds of powdered gyp and it was clear the next day . I note that Penn DEQ was a lot pickier about turbid stormwater departing oilfield facilities than other sites . They'd fine us after we spent big bucks on sediment control measures and yet not say a word to the farmers all around us who had muddy water rolling off their fields in a rainstorm. I guess the streams were less impacted by farm sediment than oilfield sediment … right? Never mind there were thousands of acres of plowed fields and we may have had 10 acres impacted per well pad with engineering controls incorporated into the design of the pads to minimize sediment leaving location. I digress and I know this is an entirely different topic but the point is the gypsum worked there as well.

Appreciate your knowledge on this subject. During my time at TAM and the WFS curriculum they had then only included one limnology class. That's where I learned about using gypsum.
I would like to ask your opinion and expertise on what do you think is the explanation of the fact that if I pump water from my clear pond to the lake, that will make it totally clear up in a day or two without adding gypsum.
The lake is at a lower elevation and in different ground than the pond. Pond is about 3/4 acre and is spring fed. Even in a flooding rain it never gets turbid or murky.
The lake will muddy up from clay in heavy rains and then it will not settle out. I have added rip rap rock in all the inlets to the lake and other areas that are clay that water runs through to the lake to filter it…..but in hard rains it still will muddy up and not clear up on its own.
If I add gypsum it will clear up in a day or so. However if I pump quite a few gallons of water ( 200gpm for 12-14 hours) from the clear pond to the lake it will also clear up in a day or so. If I do neither it will stay that muddy.
I have done the water test when it's muddy in clear jars and the clay will never fall out of suspension.
If I add a little gypsum it will. OR if I add some of the pond water it will.
Can you give me any thoughts on why the pond water clears it up?
Thank you in advance.

I haven't dealt with anything like that but I'll provide my best guess. Higher pH can help with turbidity so if the clear pond has higher pH maybe due to a more alkaline watershed or bottom conditions that might be the answer . Maybe check the pH from the clear pond versus the muddy one and see if there is a difference.

If that is the case you may be able to add lime to the muddy pond instead of pumping water from the clear pond and get the same impact. You can bottle test that as well.

Much obliged! I will do that and report back. I really appreciate you responding back to me sir!

Glad to do so . Hope it helps!

I have a copy of Dr Claude Boyd's Water Quality in Warmwater Fish Ponds. It was the bible for aquaculture back in the day. Anybody want it?