DIY Stock Tank Pool
A little oasis in our backyard
I’m sure by now you have seen a few stock tank pools floating around the internet. Let me tell you, It’s so worth it. In the heat of the summer when you don’t feel like leaving your house, it’s so nice to be able to relax close to home while the little ones swim. It’s also super cute and adds a visually appealing spot in our backyard. The best part is it is significantly cheaper than an actual pool and for the most part easy to maintain
. We’ve had ours for only two years and I have a lot of do’s and don’t already. Though, it is low maintenance most of the time, there are some things I would have done differently if I started over right now.
The Biggest Don’t
DON’T flex seal or normal paint on the inside- The biggest mistake I made was not listen to my husband on this one. He told me not to paint the inside and being me I didn't take his advice and have spent two years maintaining paint that peels off. I did find a solution using pond shield. However, this required me to drain the pool, sand off the remaining paint that didn’t peel off and repaint it for the 3rd time.
Now that we got the don’t out of the way
The do’s
Install a pump- This is the easiest way to maintain your pool. Once your pump is running it has a timer you can use to run everyday without you turning It on.
Chlorine is a must- The other way to keep your pool clean is use chlorine to balance out the chemicals. The first year I had it was pretty easy. I just added chlorine tabs to the floater every week and that was it. The second year it has required more hands on.
PH balance test strips- Because the second year has been so challenging, I bought these test strips that check the balance of chlorine, ph and hardness of water. After testing I gage what I do next by what the strip tells me.
Extra Filter- I didn't run out of the filters that quickly but when I needed to buy some more, they were all sold out and the ones I got from amazon came from china and took all summer to get here.
Stock Tank Pool
Ingredients
Instructions
- Start with an even flat surface.
- place STOCK TANK in desired location within 6ft of an outlet.
- Start by using your HOLE SAW - 2 3/4” w/ ARBOR to drill the Inlet and outlet holes. Attach hole saw to drill and apply even pressure against the tank. The inlet hole (water shoots out) will be about 1 ft from ground. The outlet hole (water sucks in) will be 3-4 inches from ground. NOTE: If your stock tank has horizontal ribs, you will want it above the ribbed area.
- After drilling the holes, you will attach the inlet jet (water shoots out)to the top hole with the RUBBER WASHER on the inside in between the jet and to stock tank and the outlet strainer to the bottom hole with the RUBBER WASHER on the inside in between the strainer and the stock tank.
- After the inlet jet and the outlet strainer is installed you can now start connecting the INTEX PLUNGER VALVES. The pump comes with one so you will only need to order one extra one.
- Once the plunger valves are installed, attach the hoses to both valves. from there you will attach the hose connected to the inlet jet(water shoots out) to the filter side of the pump (The tall side) and the outlet strainer (water sucks in) to the "short" side. Also, you can flow the instructions that come with the filter pump.
- Lastly, Fill the tank and you have you have a pool!
Notes:
- Try and find a stock tank without vertical ribs around the pool. The risk of leak is a lot higher even with rubber silicone.
- If you decide to paint it, I suggest only painting the outside or exactly where the water line will hit using a rubberized paint or get it painted professionally!
More Info
If you want more info on how we painted out pool you can find that in my post about How to paint a stock tank pool.
