Fall Stock Tank Pool Update and Floating Pumpkins
Our stock tank pool DIY this spring was definitely a hit, here on the blog, on social media and most importantly with our family and friends. It has all been such a learning curve for my husband and me since it is all in untested waters so to speak. So I thought it was time for a little update and some fun with floating pumpkins.
This little pool of ours has changed the way we use the yard completely. Even though it is tiny, we feel like we have a little resort now and used it almost every day when we were home. The kids love it just as much as the adults and it is fun for the grownups to sit in it in a circle while having a cool beverage on a hot day.
I personally love floating in it on a raft to catch some sun and it has seriously made me relax more and sadly for the blog work there have been less DIYs but don’t tell anybody…haha.
Stock Tank Pool Update With Floating Pumpkins
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What to do when the stock tank pool turns green
We ran into some difficulties while we were in Germany when we received a text from the neighbor with the below photo. If you are subscribed to my email list then you have gotten that update in my email already.
Well, it appeared that the pump wasn’t working right when we were gone and the frogs had moved in.
The water had turned severely green due to lots of algae and there were a million mosquito larvae in it as well. We didn’t even attempt to clear this mess up with chemicals. Instead, we used our old sump pump and a hose to pump out the 700 gallons of yucky water, so we could start fresh. Luckly this isn’t a big project with such a small pool. When we reached the bottom 1 inch of water, we just scooped the rest out with cups and washed and cleaned the liner completely.
You can follow some of the cleaning process on my story highlights on Instagram HERE.
Most importantly we also had to clean the sand filter pump and replace the sand with fresh and new filter sand before filling up the pool again with fresh water.
To our surprise this all took about half a day and we were quickly able to use the pool again as if nothing had happened!
Protecting the Bamboo surround
We finally stained the bamboo (find the stain HERE) and it is definitely a must or otherwise it turns black and moldy which had already happened. We had to clean it with THIS amazing mold cleaner first. It works wonders and cleans all mold super fast.
Below on the right, you can see the bamboo after cleaning it with the mold cleaner and a toothbrush and on the left, it is with one coat of Cedartone bamboo stain.
We bought a solar cover (HERE) and cut it to the exact size so we can use the pool into fall. It’s cool at night but still hot during the day.
For fun, you can see below what the pool looked like in spring with the plants and how it has changed now when the plants are overgrown and starting to look brown and yucky for fall.
Winterizing our stock tank pool
We are planning on pumping out most of the water again like we did when we cleaned the pool. After that we will probably add a winter pillow , winter pill for the remaining water under a pool cover like you do with regular above ground pools. I’m planning on writing an extra blog post about that process since this is also still a learning curve for us.
What I want to do next summer
We were contemplating taking the liner out and trying it without one for a season since there is a tear somewhere that lets the small amount of water leak underneath the liner. If we chose to replace the liner then we need to find a solution for what we could use to cap the liner so it stays in place better. I had ordered several things to try but so far no luck. I know a lot of people have suggested using pool noodles sliced open on one side but I hate the look and they are way too soft and defintiely not strong enough to keep the liner in place.
Regular above ground pools use clips to hold the liner in place but since the stock tank has a larger round edge those clips don’t fit. I had also thought about slicing a garden hose and trying to use that to cap the liner but havent found a broken one yet that I could use to try that with. I don’t feel like spending money on an expensive hose only for it to fail like my other attempts.
So please comment below if you have any ideas for what I could use to cap the liner to keep it in place should we replace this one because it has holes.
And check out some of my fall decor posts below:
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Tschüß,
Love your little pool. As you know, we had one for 3 years before we sold our last house, we didn’t use a liner, instead, we painted the inside with pool paint. It is kind of a rubbery type paint made for ponds and etc. We painted our a pretty blue like a pool would be and it was perfect. We didn’t have any chips or scrapes at all with it. We were careful not to ever have anything with metal legs in the pool. I loved our little pool and we used it almost every day too. Since we live in the desert we didn’t have to winterize ours. We had a waterfall on the back of ours that flowed into the pool and circulated back up and out the falls again, so it circulated the water and kept it really clean. You might try just painting the inside of yours, much cheaper than a liner.
Yes I loved your pool Marty and see it frequently on roundup posts. Hate when the source gets lost. We tried rubbery roof paint but it was a definite failure.
this is such a fun idea!!! love it! you could bob for apples, too!
Yes we sure could! I jumped right in with the pumpkins when I was done 😂
Liebe Julia,
sei ein bisschen vorsichtig mit den Kürbissen im Wasser, mit Äpfeln noch mehr. Das fängt an zu faulen und dann hast Du eine Riesensauerei im Wasser.
Der Frosch sah übrigens sehr nett aus.
Grüße von Karin aus Frankfurt.
Liebe Julia,
sei ein bisschen vorsichtig mit den Kürbissen im Wasser, mit Äpfeln noch mehr. Das fängt an zu faulen und dann hast Du eine Riesensauerei im Wasser.
Der Frosch sah übrigens sehr nett aus.
Grüße von Karin aus Frankfurt.
Haha Danke, die waren nur für das photo im Wasser
This is been so helpful as I’ve been wanting to do a stock tank pool for years and I think we are finally going too. My only question is what tutorials did you use to know how to set up the pump?
Hi there Christen, back when we put ours up there weren’t that many tutorials out there and my main guidance was Hey Wanderer blog who I mentioned in my tutorial. Did you see my tutorial?