What do you mean by stock tank pond? That means a farm pond for cattle, horses, etc (stock) to drink out of here. Not many people put landscaping around them.

bkay

I'm going to bury a stock tank for a pond, rather than dig a hole and use a liner.

No livestock here - I live in the city!

Deanna

You mean those 200 or so gallon black tanks? Are you burying it or just setting it on top of the ground?

Not sure if I'll go with a galvanized metal one or a plastic one. I'm either going to bury it completely or partway and put rocks and plants around it to hide the sides.

Here's the link to a blog where a lady has some galvanized metal stock tank ponds, but she has hers above ground.

Deanna

Here is a link that might be useful: Stock tank pond

This is the first pond we but in three years ago and we used an old satellite dish but a round stock water would work just fine. We used a small pond pump and installed a hose to make it like a waterfall. We lined the tank with placed rocks so you didn't see the tank. We had goldfish for the first couple years but they do make it dirty as we never had the proper filter system and I would drain and clean it( with a shop vac). I finally moved the fish into the other smaller one which I will send a picture of it too. Good luck with yours and hope you post some pictures. I had plants in but they turned the water green so was not all that happy so I took them out and just planted around them

Pretty!

This pond is made with a stock waterer(110 gal on the bottom one and the other raised one was from a set that was to soft and the dirt is caving it in. When or if it collapses we will replace it with a smaller stock tank. The top one has an overflow and circulated from the larger one to the smaller one like a small sounding waterfall when the punp is turned on. This is where we have the goldfish now and they winter her too. I just stuck an artificial plant on the edge so the fish have a place to hide. It also has ricks places inside for the fish to hide under and hide the trough too. Put crushed rock in the bottom and makes it look more like a brook. This one has the "dry bed " leading up to the pond and behind we made a little bridge across the dry pond.

another view

different view and and happy ponding

Impressive! Did you put that in yourself?

Creative use of an old satellite dish, by the way.

Is the stock tank that's collapsing plastic or metal?

Do you by any chance have a dog? I'm wondering if my dog will try to get in it because of the fish. She hates baths, but when she's on the hunt, nothing gets in her way!

Deanna

I enjoyed seeing the photos, then when I went looking around, I discovered a whole GW Forum devoted to...ponds!

-Babka

Here is a link that might be useful: Ponds Forum

Yes Deanna we put everything in ourselves.. My husband helped dig out the dirt and bed sand around it. The one is collapsing was one of those kits from Walmart or Zeller's.. do not buy those but the bigger one was replaced with a plastic stock trough
Yes we have three wiener dogs and yes Leo has "hunted the fish" and fell in twice I was there both times but he got our with just a slight bit of difficulty. He even climbed our cherry tree to try for a squirrel that he thought was there

Here is my little pond in my backyard last December. It is a plastic $100 pond from HD, sits there probably 10-15 years. It is low cost and low effort, and provides a focal point. It has no filter and no pump. Since it sits in the shade, there is no problems with algae. I clean out the bottom and remove 15% of the water every 2 months. We have 7 goldfish in there during April-December, and which live in our basement in a 55 gal aquarium during winter. The black frame is for a black net which keeps out herons, racoons and leaves.
Behind it from the upper left to the lower right, behind the bench, runs a little dry creek bed which drains the backyard to the right, and further under the fence.
Bernd

bernd - I put goldfish in mine in zone 6 to eat mosquito larvae and left them in over winter. They are coldwater fish. In spring when I did my maintenance I found quite a lot of baby goldfish. They weren't hybernating during the winter.

I will see if I can scan some old photos to add to this thread. I had a larger pond made with flexible rubber liner and a small pool installed in a raised bed that was a molded plastic kidney shaped thing. I had emmergent plants like Arrowhead and Pickerel Grass in it. A pump in the larger pond sent water up into the small pool which then over-flowed back down to the pond which I had planted with Waterlily and Lotus. Hostas show well and do a wonderful job of disguising the structural things inherent with the shorelines of man made ponds.

We are all hosta lovers here so I think we can forgive a city-slicker hostaholic for not knowing what a REAL stock tank is. The reason you don't plant anything around a stock tank is because nothing survives there. Cattle are really sloppy drinkers with nothing but getting to water on their mind. (Not the brightest mammals on the earth, if you park you pick-up in the shade of a nearby tree to keep it cool they will try to drink your windshield! It feels cool to their tongues and they can see their reflection like they do from the surface of water.)

I wouldn't recommend putting a galvanized watering trough in the ground to form a pond. I mean, it will work; for a while! Non-metallic would be so much better over the long haul.

Les

Bernd - how deep is your HD pond?

HostaLes - I never dreamed cows were quite that dumb!! Looking forward to seeing your pond pics...will goldfish eat tadpoles too? I'd like to have frogs and toads coming to my pond as well.

Babka - don't know why I didn't think to look for a pond forum...duh. Thanks!

Deanna

Our goldfish have no sun in summer, so they do not have offspring. One seems to be part koi, has the facial look. My neighbor across the street has large kois and real carps and a much larger pond, with pond liner. His pond is perhaps 3 ft deep and he keeps all his fish in there over winter.
My HD pond is 18 inches deep. I cover it up over winter with plywood and old shower curtains. Usually there is no ice when it has snow cover. In the past I overwintered the goldfish in the pond, but now my grandson loves to have them over winter in the basement to feed them. There it is a nice colorful setting. A pond and hostas is a nice combination. Bernd