---
title: "Livestock: problems we treat | Alchemal"
url: "https://alchemal.com/livestock/problems/"
description: "The problems we treat in manure and slurry lagoons, what is actually happening in the water, and what usually fixes it."
source: "Alchemal — alchemal.com"
---
# What goes wrong in manure and slurry lagoons

Each page explains what is actually happening in the water, what usually fixes it, and when oxygenation is not the right tool.

7 problems

## What are you seeing?

- [Lagoon surface crust and lost freeboard: the anaerobic column beneath A hardening surface crust that traps gas, fouls pumping, and eats into freeboard sits over an anaerobic column. See how oxygen addresses the biology beneath the mat.](https://alchemal.com/problems/lagoon-surface-crust/)
- [Algae on a lagoon surface: the conditions behind it A lagoon surface that greens up in the heat is warm, still, and fed by an oxygen-poor bottom. See how restoring oxygen through the column shifts the balance back.](https://alchemal.com/problems/lagoon-surface-algae/)

## What are you smelling?

- [Lagoon odor and sludge: keep the column aerobic Odor complaints, crusting, and sludge that makes pumping harder. One anaerobic cause sits behind all three.](https://alchemal.com/problems/lagoon-odor-sludge/)
- [Why a lagoon sours: the anaerobic turn and hydrogen sulfide A sour, rotten-egg smell off the lagoon means the water has gone anaerobic and is making hydrogen sulfide. See how keeping the upper column aerobic shifts the breakdown back.](https://alchemal.com/problems/lagoon-anaerobic-souring/)

## What are you losing?

- [Lagoon sludge and lost capacity: the slow anaerobic digest Sludge that eats capacity and makes each pump-out harder is the load an anaerobic lagoon never finished digesting. See how oxygen speeds the breakdown so less settles.](https://alchemal.com/problems/lagoon-sludge-capacity-pumpout/)
- [Lagoon BOD and nutrient load: readings a permit turns on BOD and nutrient readings are what a lagoon permit turns on, and an anaerobic lagoon runs them high. See how an aerobic column brings the biological load down, measured against a baseline.](https://alchemal.com/problems/lagoon-bod-nutrient-permits/)

## Tired of treating it?

- [The lagoon treadmill: agitate, haul, mask, repeat Agitating, hauling, and masking come back every season because they treat symptoms of one anaerobic cause. See how an aerobic column slows the work coming back.](https://alchemal.com/problems/lagoon-agitation-hauling-treadmill/)

## Tell us what your water is doing.

A specialist reads your description and replies in writing: what it usually means and what we would measure first.

[Get a free assessment](https://alchemal.com/assessment/)