This is a picture of the pond one year after it was dug. It's
about half full
at this time. The water comes entirely from the runoff of our
back yard.
That way we have full control of the water quality.
The water at this point is a murky brown from the suspended clay particles.
These would eventually settle out, but we wanted to hurry the process.
So,
we mixed in several hundred pounds of powdered agricultural gypsum.
This
causes the clay particles to stick together and sink to the bottom
We also
had several tons of agricultural lime spread into the pond and onto
the
watershed. This was mainly to counteract the acidity of the soil in
my area.
It was interesting to see how the pond cleared up. It took a while.
The
pond started to look like it was clearing up, but we really weren't
sure.
Then over a short period of time algae started growing and the pond
took
on a greenish color. Shortly after that the pond completely settled
out
and took on a clear green blue color. The particles were gone
for good.