Hi everyone! Here’s a year review of our stock tank pool and the beautification we’ve done in that time.
Here’s where we left off last year when it was just a big hunk of metal…
And here we are today!
You can see there’s bamboo fencing, tiki decorations, a stone and rock entrance, landscaping, a real pump and filter, plus it has a solar cover and a proper cover now too.
So let’s start with the bamboo.
I got an 8-foot by 4-foot fence of 1” thick bamboo from Forever Bamboo.com. We plan to build a deck around half of the pool some day when we can afford lumber, so I was only concerned with covering the front half in bamboo. And the pool is only two feet tall so the plan was to cut the bamboo fence in half and have 16 feet of coverage.
We strapped the bamboo fence to a table and used a skill saw to cut through it. I wasn’t a pretty cut but it did the job. I used scissors to cut off the frayed ends.
There was a wire going through the middle of the fence to hold the bamboo poles together, so I used some bolt cutters to cut it the rest of the way out.
That left only one length of wire going through each section of bamboo so it needed something to hold it together. I got a roll of Twine to tie the ends and the middle together. It’s somewhat functional, somewhat decorative.
I left long ties at the ends so I can tie the two sections together later.
We got this Preserva Wood sealant from our local hardware store to give the bamboo a protective layer from the sun and the chlorinated water. We got the gallon to make sure there would be enough, but really the bamboo has almost zero absorbency so we hardly made a dent in the gallon. We would have been just find with the smaller size can.
The cedar color matched the bamboo perfectly. You can barely tell the color difference from the unpainted poles on the left to the shiny, painted poles on the right.
This stuff is oil based, so you’ll want to use disposable brushes and containers. I brushed it on the entire length, then came back with a clean rag and wiped away the excess. Then I flipped half of the fence over and wiped away the drips, then flipped the other side and wiped away the drips, and went back and forth a few times because it really was pretty drippy. The next day I flipped it over to paint the back, but if I was doing it again I would have painted the back at the same time as the front by smearing the drips around.
I let it cure for a few days and then tied the two 8’ sections together, then tied them around the back of the pool.
The pool noodles stretched over the bamboo just fine, but we’ve stopped using the noodles because they disintegrate too quickly out here.
The solar cover was from Amazon. We got a 15-foot cover and cut it down, then cut a second one out too. This thing works really well – the water gets super hot on the top three inches or so, then you mix it with the cooler water on the bottom so it extended our pool season into fall last year. This year not so much. We are very much into fall weather and the solar cover can’t keep up. Also it’s falling apart after barely two seasons, so maybe don’t get this one.
The cover is a patio furniture cover that’s meant to cover a circular table and chairs, but it’s just perfect for a stock tank pool! They have a 96” version, and you may be tempted because an 8’ stock tank should have a 96” diameter, but let me tell you – it won’t fit. I know, I didn’t believe it either, but it’s just too snug. So go ahead and get the 110” option.
We did some landscaping with the trees and dry stacked these rocks to make a tier for the bistro set. We had some concrete work done and my mom and I used some extra concrete to make this bird bath. My dad drilled a hole through it for the sprinkler emitter so it refills when the sprinklers run. I can watch the birds from the pool, and one day we even watched a falcon taking a bath!!!
I have some native plants lining the fence that get watered from the laundry grey water. The other plants are on DIY poly tubing irrigation that I put in last year.
Back to the stock tank – we have a real filter now! It’s a Bestway FlowClear Sand Filter, and it’s meant to go on it’s own above ground pool that already has the inlet and outlet holes and connectors built in. Since we aren’t doing that, we had to make our own connections to the pool. I wasn’t home when this happened so there’s no photographic evidence of it, although I wish there was because my dad drilled the holes into the tank while it was full of water! He put his hand against the inside of the tank and the pressure from the water kept a tight seal while with minimal water loss!
My husband made the blue silicone gaskets, and my dad used bulkhead fittings from Tractor Supply and some PVC fittings to secure the hoses to the stock tank.
After 3 or 4 months a hose split in half, and a week later the other hose split, so we upgraded to heavier weight grey hoses. Other than that annoyance the filter works pretty well.
And now what you’ve all been waiting for – the epoxy! It’s not pealing up at all anywhere, it’s secure as ever! But the color is changing. It was a little yellowed above the water line when we filled it this spring, and now at the end of summer it’s pretty much all green and going brown above the water line.
It looks dirty, but I promise it’s clean! We might have to re-coat it next year so it doesn’t look so swampy.
That’s it for the stock tank pool! Now we’re remodeling our bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room. Actually we started those in December. We might get the bathroom done in this month. The kitchen maybe next summer.
So stay tuned for that fun stuff!
