And so began my love affair, with water…
Brad Paisley is right…I definitely love the water. I grew up swimming in my grandparents’ pool and loved swimming in the ocean before I learned so much about the habits of sharks. I was a fish. You couldn’t get me out of the water. Growing up, our yard was huge and could have easily accommodated two swimming pools. My dad refused to let us get a pool (even after my grandparents moved due to needing one floor living). He said, you will find you have friends you never knew you had. LOL! However, I knew I wanted to have a pool someday.
What is a Stock Tank Pool?
We live out in the country and our backyard gets the afternoon sun like you wouldn’t believe. It is blinding. We were lucky enough to inherit a gazebo from my parents’ neighbors who were adding onto their house and didn’t need it anymore. But that wasn’t enough. I wanted a pool. Like my dad, my husband refused to let us get a pool because he didn’t want it taking up the whole yard and the boys’ space to play (plus they are really expensive). I kept hearing about these stock tank pools where you take a literal stock tank that livestock drink out of and turn it into a pool, complete with an above ground pool pump. Also known as a cowboy pool, rural pool, redneck pool, etc. Side note: It still surprises me how many people still have not heard of this phenomenon.
This was enough for me to sit in and cool off and let the boys play in it enough that I didn’t really need to worry about them as much. I loved this idea!
Galvanized vs Poly
A lot of research went into my decisions. I went with a poly tank (instead of galvanized) because I did not want the headache of it rusting, or having to seal it to prevent rusting (pond shield, a liner, or flex seal). A lot of chemicals react with the galvanized metal and can excelerate rusting. Though they are aqua blue, I didn’t care, it outweighed the headache of keeping it from rusting. Plus, galvanized was still hard to find this year. We purchased an 8 ft poly and I never looked back. Although 10 ft would be fabulous, there weren’t any available in our area. When my hubby brought home our 8 ft, I was kind of shocked at how big it was when I sat in it! It’s perfectly big enough for our family of 4 to be in it together. I can fit in it with a water hammock, and my two sons with one of them in an inner tube.
I was deliberating whether to get a regular above ground pool pump or a sand pump. Although a regular cartridge pump can filter down to a bit more microns than a sand filter, I still liked the idea of not messing with and buying filters frequently. Here is a great blog post explaining the difference a bit more.
This is our set up for now…this Fall/next Spring we will work on better leveling and landscaping around the pool a bit more.
We went with a sand filter. This was quite interesting because I kept looking up the pump because of reading Facebook group threads and linking back to the one I purchased and I noticed it kept decreasing in price! It hadn’t shipped yet so I kept canceling and reordering at the lower price. It went down $60 in one week! So if you are little leery about the price, you could wait around and see if it fluctuates throughout the week.
Now that we’ve had it for a couple of weeks through a heat wave and numerous uses by my boys, I am glad we got the sand filter. I have already had to backwash (cleans the filter and rinses waste) it twice. I can’t imagine what a cartridge filter would have looked like! You will notice that it needs backwashed when the strainer/outlet doesn’t feel as strong (and doesn’t suck your hand in, ha) and the inlet is lacking noticeable bubbles (aeration). I was a bit intimidated but I got the process down now!
So how does the water stay crystal clear?
I wasn’t too keen on using chlorine as I was reading more and more of why it isn’t good for your body plus, I didn’t really want to mess with that stuff and I heard chlorine tablets were hard to come by this year. I heard using food grade hydrogen peroxide was another option but I wasn’t into using that and trying to order it. I joined several Facebook Stock Tank Pool groups and I heard SoftSwim products recommended.
Their products are simple enough to use. Basically you use 3.2 oz SoftSwim B the sanitizer (if you have a 9 foot stock tank pool) and basically the chlorine substitute. You can get the clarifier which is good to help with cloudiness from sunscreen and body oil. I haven’t used that yet and I think I ordered the algaecide by accident (which is fine because it’s made for pools). But you would use 6.4 oz of clarifier (again if you have a 9 foot pool). I use a scant 1.5 oz of algaecide. Please do not take my word for this.
Do your do diligence and research this. It just made sense for me per the directions and my 8 foot stock tank pool. Some people don’t test their pool if it’s clear but I do just because I’m curious. Keep in mind sun does evaporate chlorine.
What I would recommend purchasing:
- poly stock tank pool- found at some hardware stores, Tractor Supply, etc.
- strainer– pump kits usually come with the output. EDIT: I recommend not buying this. Apparently it is 3D printed and the reviews aren’t very good. Ours didn’t last a year (almost).
- plunge valves (these get connected to both the inlet and outlet hoses.
- sand filter pump– not the one I bought as that was sold out but this is a similar one from the same brand
- pool cover
- skimmer net
- pool vacuum– super easy to use and hooks up to your garden hose
- water hammock
- SoftSwim chlorine free swimming pool sanitizer– (soft swim B) and I use 3.2 oz. I use this instead of chlorine tablets which can be harsher on your skin
- SoftSwim Algaecide inhibitor and preventative– EDIT: I plan on switching to the Clarifier and use 6.4 oz. These measurements are for a 9 foot polytank.
- RV hose filter– A friend recommended this to me who has an inground pool. I use this because we have hard water and it helps filter any copper or heavy metals out of the water. So if you would need to shock the water it will help it not turn green. The chlorine binds to the copper and turns the water green. But it’s good to filter out the metals in the hard water anyway.
- Pool water testing strips – I use these to check the water from time to time, mainly for the PH/akalinity. I honestly don’t have huge issues with levels being way off. As long as you are using a filter and using the sanitizer and clarifier every couple of weeks, the water should be fine.
- 2 3/4 hole saw (if you aren’t aware this attaches to your drill to drill the holes in the side of the pool.
We recommend following Hey Wanderer’s blog posts and YouTube videos. I know this can seem intimidating at first but trust me, it will be worth it. Follow the instructions included with your pump and you can’t go wrong.
There are so many ways you can decorate/landscape around your pool. Check out Pinterest and Instagram for lots of ideas.
What can I say? I’m in love! I can even float on an inner tube or one of those hammock rafts. I can work in the garden and jump in and cool off. It’s perfection!
If you are limited in space or budget, I totally recommend getting a stock tank pool!
