Anyone know where in north Texas to buy bulk Aluminim Sulfate (Alum) powder or Calcium Sulfate or Calcium Carbonate powder to clear muddy pond? Thanks.

How big is your pond? I am dealing with a muddy tank myself and going to try the hay bale treatment before I go chemical. Gypsum is another option you have.

We have red clay ponds that we have used discarded sheet rock. Works great but probably need to throw in some every couple of years.

Will the sheetrock eventually dissipate

I've always been against using sheet rock in my ponds...mainly because you don't really know what is in it, what glues are used, what other chemicals, etc. Just too risky for me.

I use round bales of hay...just set them in, replace every couple of years. They work great and provide structure and breeding habitat for small critters that bass love. Using last year's hay makes the cost almost negligible.

Do you remove the twine or just role it in?

Yes, I use a net wrap on my baler and just remove the netting and drop in pond, Some of them may travel but most quickly sink to a spot and stay there for the duration.

Instead of using sheet rock, you can have Ag lime dumped in it - Is the pond where you can get a dump truck or trailer up to it?

I had my soil tested by taking samples and sending them off to the local county ag extension office and they came back with PH of 5.4 and rule of thumb is that it takes 1 ton of lime per acre to raise PH 1 point; so I started by going to Lowe's and buying 40lbs sacks from the garden department and tossing them into my first pond out of the back of my truck and after doing that for a half pallet worth of sacks I said to hell with this and went the easier way.

so I had a local contractor go out to a rock pit with his dump truck for a load of lime(10 tons) and dump piles of lime around the banks for a couple of different ponds and then take a back hoe and use the loader bucket to pitch the lime into the ponds around the banks and he then used the boom bucket to stir the water up and spread the lime around..... Worked great and since I was having other work done it only cost me an extra $500 total for the lime, trucking & backhoe

Having said that you could do the same thing on a smaller scale with a rented dump trailer if you find a place that sells bulk Ag lime(powered lime stone) and back the trailer up to the edge of the pond and use a sump pump or gas powered trash water pump with a hose and spray nozzle to spray the lime out of the back of the trailer..... If its a large pond you can use the barge method like in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXH5JtEfOx4

Interesting post deewayne2003.

I had not heard that theory of 1 ton of lime to 1 acre of water to raise the PH 1 point. My experience has been different. There is a correlation between lime and PH. The real purpose of lime is to raise total alkalinity which does raise PH. The increase in alkalinity, while raising PH really stabilizes the PH. This increase and stability increases the opportunity for a phytoplankton or zooplankton bloom. When alkalinity is low, the PH swings wildly throughout the day, making a "boom" very difficult and thus short lived. Often fertilization only lasts a couple of weeks and the bloom is not strong. In some cases we might recommend 3 or 4 tons of lime to the acre and would not see a 3 or 4 point increase in PH. Maybe 1/4 or up to 1/2 of that.

In ponds were the PH is less than 7, I like using 1 to 2 tons of lime per acre to clear a muddy pond. In ponds with a PH more than 7 use gypsum to clear the pond.

I love rule of thumb theories, and use them often. But in this case, my experience 1 ton per acre would not raise the PH 1 point.

All the other stuff is spot on. Congratulations on figuring it out and doing it yourself. Well done.