Anyone thats ever built a pond themselves has experienced a muddy pond. You try and be patient……. but the water just wont clear. Well today I’ll share with you a great little product that will clear up that muddy pond fast!
The product that will clear up a muddy pond fast is called flocculant. Basically what flocculent does is it binds all the suspended muddy particles together. They then sink and you’re left with crystal clear water.
Don’t worry flocculent won’t break the bank. I purchased a 470ml (16oz) bottle for $25. It provides enough flocculent to clear 30,280 litres (8000 gal) of muddied pond water.
The brand i personally used was PondMax, ClearMax flocculent. The water was noticeably clearer within 2 hours. It took two applications 3 days apart to turn my muddy pond into a beautiful clear pond. Check out these photos!
Before treatment 
After first treatment 
After second treatment
If you have a larger clay lined pond or dam it will be more cost effective to buy a more concentrated form of flocculent. There are many to choose from.
Select a product designed specifically for ponds – not pools! Pond specific flocculent are designed to be safe for aquatic flora and fauna.
Why you need flocculent to clear a muddy pond and how it works
When you build a pond, dam or garden pond small clay particles get stirred up in the water. These small particles wont bond to each other, much like to identical poles on a magnet.
These individual clay particles are tiny. They pass through pond pumps and filters. This means if you do nothing it will take forever to clear.
What the flocculent does is it binds these particles together. Once they bind together they get heavier than the water in the pond and sink to the bottom.
The particles also bond with other organic materials in the pond. Now they can be collected via the filter, pond pump or vacuumed out. Or if it’s a clay lined pond or dam just leave them be.
How to apply pond flocculent
To apply the instructions will require you have a general idea about how much water the pond holds.
This is easy to work out using the formula below:
| Pond size calculation Litres | Length x width x average depth x 1000 = Litres |
| Pond size calculation Gallons | Length x width x average depth x 7.5 = Gallons |
Once you know how much water the pond holds you’ll know exactly how much flocculent to use.
I mix the flocculent in a watering can. First i fill the watering can with pond water. I use pond water cause its safe for the beneficial bacterias and organisms living in the pond.
Give the bottle of flocculent a good shake and the apply the prescribed rate into the watering can. Then apply the diluted flocculent evenly over the surface of the pond.
The flocculent will go to work instantly, as i mentioned earlier the water was notably clearer within 2 hours of application.
Allow the correct amount of time to pass before adding another dosage, only if required. My pond was very muddy and needed 2 treatments to become crystal clear.
Will pond flocculent work on algae?
It depends on the type of algae. It will work on single celled algae- the kind that turns a pond green. However it will have no effect on string algae.
Remember the flocculent binds small particles together, in this case single celled algae. The algae will then sink to the bottom.
If you don’t remove it it will just start decomposing and release more nutrients into the water and create more algae.
Your best bet is to increase biological filtration. By far the best way to do this is installing a wetland or bog filter. These can easily be made yourself and retrofitted to an existing pond. Click the link to read more about wetland and bog filtration or watch the video below.
Hopefully this article has been helpful is so subscribe to my mailing list for more pond tips and advice.
Thanks for reading 🙂
