Oyster shells questions

[joesandy1822]

Hello. I won't go into specifics here about my pond, but just have a couple basic questions to any of you who use oyster shells to buffer pH. Can oyster shells give cloudiness to the water? I know they can temporarily because of the fine "dust" in the bottom of the bag, but I'm talking about long-term cloudiness? My particular shells were the poultry grit type. I'm just wondering if the cloudiness in the pond that just doesn't seem to budge could be due to that, or if it is still just dead or dying algae or tannins. It's not green pea soup looking anymore. It's more brownish looking, but not clear like tea. It's more like light brown with just a tinge of cloudiness. I can see down about 18 inches or so, but not far enough to see the hornwort or the bottom of my pond. Could be totally unrelated to the oyster shells, but thought I'd ask just in case.

Also, my KH continues to drop, so I am going to use some baking soda to raise it. I'm assuming that it will be alright to do that, even with the oyster shells in the water, since they dissolve over a long time? I just don't want to overdo it, but it only takes 2 drops right now for my KH, down from 3 drops, and this change occurred even after I put the 50 pounds of oyster shells in there (about a week and a half ago). The pond is 3,000 gallons.

Thanks.

 

[sissy]

The dust helps buffer the water but if you don't want the fine dust then just give them a soak in a bucket of water first .I do this and then use that water to clean the quilt batting .I only use baking soda to raise ph .

 

[addy1]

The oyster shells work the best where water is moving all of the time. I put mine in the bog where the water is running back into the pond, mini stream.

 

[Mmathis]

The ONLY time I see the "dust" from my oyster shells is when I jiggle the bag. And then it only lasts for less than a minute. I also have the feed-store kind.

I don't know about brown water except for the clear, cola-colored kind. I get that from tannins every time it rains. But even with the brown color, the water itself is still clear. It could be from dead algae.... That's a good question. Maybe there's more than one thing going on. I'll have my "tannin" water, yet have a little bit of the pea soup stuff (pea soup, "lite" ), but the brown from the tannins tends to over power the green from the algae, so it all appears brown.

Hang in there. Patience is the hardest part about pond-keeping!

Oh, and I agree with Addy about water movement. I have mine in my SKIPPY, where the bubbles come up.

 

[sissy]

I have mine in both filters and a bag hanging under each water flow and one hanging from the bridge where the ball valve points for my extra water that comes out of the pump and skims the surface of the water .I use activated charcoal to keep the tea colored water at bay .It happens here during pollen season and I have lots of trees here .

 

[joesandy1822]

My oyster shells are in a bag on a shelf under the waterfall, so I know they are getting good flow through them. I suspect, as was mentioned, that it is a combination of things. I am just going to wait it out some more. Just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something with the oyster shells. At least the horrible pea soup is gone (for now), and I can, at times, see the fish.

I'm on my way to get some baking soda though. I'd like to get my KH up a bit because my pH is bouncing around during the course of a day too much for my liking. And maybe a higher KH will help the bacteria also.