It seems like everyone is DIY’ing a Stock Tank Pool this year, which means it’s really hard to find the parts you need! Here’s a little tutorial showing how we set up a temporary pump and filter for about $100 while we wait for the pool filter of our dreams to come back in stock.
We really wanted an Intex pump, but we were just too late getting into it this year. By June Intex was already out of stock of the two models we wanted, and people were reselling them for $3-$400. That’s a hefty markup for a pump that’s normally under $100! So we decided to put together a temporary solution to get us through the rest of summer. So far it’s working quite well, and it only cost about $100.
We got this Household filtration system at Home Depot to use as the filter.
We also got two 3/4” male adapters, two rolls of 5/8” inner diameter, 7/8” outer diameter vinyl tubing, and 4 little hose clamps.
The filter is supposed to be upright, so attach the bracket to a spare piece of wood to prop up by the pool.
Put the filter into the bracket, then attach the male adapters to the filter through the bracket holes.
To make the tubing easier to attach onto the pump and filter, boil some water. You want it nice and hot. Put the hose clamp on the end of the hose, and submerse that end in the water for a short while, about 30 seconds should be plenty. This makes the tubing more pliable and you can wriggle it right onto the filter.
Use the hose clamp to secure it. Mmm, steamy 🙂
We had an old water pump from a Winnebago that we’re renovating – yes, there’s no shortage of projects around our house!! – and we got it all hooked up, got power to the pump, it seemed to work just fine, but this pump isn’t meant to run continuously so it would overheat and stop working after 5 minutes or so.
So we got a submersible pond pump at Harbor Freight and hooked it up to the filter instead.
Wow-WIE does the pool get dirty, even with the ghetto tarp cover on! No place is safe from dirt in the desert. The dirt finds a way. We run the pump and filter for a few hours each day and you can really see how much dirt the filter is picking up.
Before we start up the pump we clean the filter. It’s really easy to do – the hardest part is turning this lever to the “off” position.
Then press this red button on the side to release the pressure.
Then unscrew the canister and hose off the filter really well.
Then plop it back in the canister, make sure the o-ring is still there, and screw it back into the filter housing. Then press the red button again, and turn the lever back to the “filter” position.
There’s the pond filter in the 2-day-old water that’s already looking murky and gross. But our chlorine tablets and dispenser finally arrived and cleared it right up!
Look at how clear the water is! We’re using a floating chlorine tablet dispenser and these slow-release chlorine tablets that other stock tank pool owners have recommended and they’re working great.
The blue ring around the bottom twists so you can have all 4 slots open, or twist it to close as many as you want. The dispenser took about two days to really clear the water up, and the amount of chlorine tablets that we go through varies on how much we’re in the pool. Be sure to get a chlorine testing kit to help you get the right balance. I check it every time I get in the pool and so far there hasn’t been a clear pattern for chlorinating.
We got this fun little ducky temperature gauge, and at the time I took this picture the water was about 87 degrees (that was in August). It hasn’t gotten hotter than that, but if it does we can leave the cover off over night and it’ll drop about 10 degrees.
It’s not at all an attractive set up but at least it’s keeping the pool clean and usable this season! Next year we will get an early start and set up a more permanent pump/filter situation. I’ll share the process of that with you when it happens 🙂 But I did order some decorations for the outside of the pool so I’ll share that with you soon!
