A series of experiments were conducted to study the turbidity reduction in solar ponds utilizing seawater as salt source. The experiment on the turbidity reduction efficiency with chemicals indicates that alum (KAl(SO(4))(2)center dot 12H(2)O) has a better turbidity control property because of its strongly flocculating and also well depressing the growing of algae and bacteria in the seawater. In comparison with bittern and seawater, our experiment shows that the residual brine after desalination can keep limpidity for a long time even without any chemical in it. Experiments were also conducted on the diffusion of turbidity and salinity, which show that the turbidity did not diffuse upwards in the solution. In the experiment on subsidence of soil in the bittern and saline with the same salinity, it was found that soil subsided quite quickly in the pure saline water, but very slowly in the bittern. In this paper we also proposed an economical method to protect the solar pond from the damage of rain. Finally, thermal performance of a solar pond was simulated in the conditions of different turbidities using a thermal diffusion model. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.