Opening up our stock tank pool with pool liner after winter

I’ve gotten so many questions about our stock tank pool lately and how it held up over the winter. So today’s post will address just that. I also took a short video to show you how it looked and what we did to get it back up and running.

Opening up our stock tank pool with pool liner after winter

First of all the 8′ above ground pool cover, we had purchased for our stock tank pool was a piece of junk. It ripped and didn’t do what it was supposed to do.
Since the pool is so small, it isn’t a big deal to clean it out though and we had it all clean rather quickly.

Below is the pool liner we used last year and it worked out a bit better but not great. We also had one of those inflatable floating pillows that you put under the cover but it broke as well.

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Cleaning out the debris

We usually pump the water out with an old sump pump and hose to the street gutter since we can’t use the drain on the bottom of the pool like other stock tank pool owners due to having a pool liner in the pool.

When we cleaned it out this time there was only a small amount of water in it though since we had it drained before the winter. And there were a ton of leaves inside the tank, so we used a shop vacuum instead which worked great. Make sure it is meant for wet use and remove the filter before using your shop vac around water.

video of opening up the stock tank pool after winter

Use the triangle on the image to turn on the video. If you are on a cellphone or other device, turn it horizontal for better viewing. If you are on a cellphone hold your phone horizontal to see the video better.

Fixing holes in the stock tank pool liner

We had noticed last summer that water had appeared to seep through the liner and was trapped between the tank and the liner. During the winter that had gotten even worse. So we needed to find the holes that let the water escape.
To our horror, we noticed a ton of small holes. Some of them were needle prick sized and barely noticeable. I only found those holes after the liner was completely dried and I crawled around with my hand swiping over the liner. This way I could notice when my fingers got a tiny bit of moisture on them. So this part is definitely recommended in warm sunny weather when the liner is completely dry

We bought a vinyl pool liner patching kit last summer and used that to patch those holes. We stopped counting after 15. Can you believe there were that many tiny holes? We were pretty frustrated!
To patch the holes follow the instructions on the packaging.

One of our friends said he thinks it could be that there are some sharp edges to the part of the tank itself but I’m not sure that is true. Remember, I had painted the pool with flex seal before we decided to add the liner.
The flex seal is rubbery and coated everything on the bottom of the stock tank, there were no sharp edges. And I’m still pretty confident that the flex seal protects the liner.

I guess we have to be much more careful when our friends’ little kids run in circles inside the pool and also cover it better during the winter to avoid any more tiny holes.

Usually replacing the liner would be an easy task for those of you who have a free-standing stock tank pool but ours is wedged into the hill with a ton of stones which will make it very very difficult to replace at some point.

I guess you could line the tank with a carpet remnant before adding the liner, to see if it would help but that would make sucking out any water that gets between the tank and liner more difficult.

I also peeled off old yucky patches that had gotten moldy…

… or that had turned white which I was told by the pool supply store is normal.

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Then I cut my patches, added glue and stuck them tightly on the holes as shown in my video.

Our pool pump

Another mistake we made was to store the pump in the attic. It was completely dead when we brought it out and we had to buy a new one. This time we ordered it from Walmart (HERE) instead because Amazon would have taken much longer.
Next winter we will store it in a better location. (Update: We stored in in the garage last winter and it survived 😉

We are happy to say the pool is up and running for it’s third summer after fixing the above-mentioned issues.

I added a little solar fountain that I love and last year I added a faux stone to cover the pump. Below you can see it without:

And here it is with the rock that survived the rough winter outside nicely. That rock makes all the difference, doesn’t it?

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This is it for today. I’m so sick of the unseasonably cold weather here in Pennsylvania. It would be such a welcome change to our routine here to be able to use our tiny backyard resort again.