The smaller sized galvanized tanks get pretty warm if they are in full sun most of the day. I have a couple 100 gallon and 2 150 gallons tanks. I've kept goldfish in the 150 gallon tanks and they didn't get too warm for them. One thing you can do to help prevent rusting on the bottom of these tanks is go to the auto parts store and buy some cans of spray on undercoating. Coat the outside bottom of the tank with it and it will help protect the bottom. That's what I use on mine, works just fine.

I am not sure I understand your construction question. If I am assume that the 4x4 will lay on the inside edge of the pavers than I am not sure why you are at all concerned about the weight of water as the water will be inside these pavers. But even if the water was on the pavers lets look at the pressure that would be on the paver. The water would be 2 ft high. To figure out how much pressure this would be first pressure is expressed as pounds per square inch. So we need to determine how much a column of water that is 24" high and 1" square. Well a column of water that is about 28 inches high by 1" sq weighs 1 pound. So we have less than 1 psi of pressure. So how much pressure is 1 psi. As an example lets take a 200 lb man standing on the pavers. Lets say that each foot on this man covers an area of 20 sq inches which is high. Since he is standing on two feet his weight is on two feet or covering an area of 40 sq inches. To find out how much weight per sq inch we divide 200 by 40. So we have 5 psi of force. So the pavers can easily take 5 psi or five times that of the water. So lets see if they can take the weight of the wood on them. If we take a 4x4 that is 2 ft long how much does it weigh. Lets just say that it weighs 20 lbs which is probably high but some 4x4's that are full of water can weigh close to that. So how much surface area does this 4x4 cover. This would be 3.5 x 3.5 or 12.25 sq inches. So 20 divided by 12.25 we get 1.63 psi and we can see that the pavers can easily take the weight of the 4x4's 24 inches high. This is true if the pavers are set on a flat smooth surface if not they may crack. Mike

Hi, Gary, You said, the most important thing is to decide WHAT you want to keep in it. With that much water an ornamental or edible fish pond would be the obvious choice . I will have plants and edible fish. I'll check with the University Extension service to see what they recommend. I have a friend who fishes from a lake. Maybe I can convince him to bring me a few! (Then he won't have to drive so far...) You could grow magnificent Koi or pan fish for sure. Next consider your climate I'm sure you have mild winters frost but no freezing??extremely hot summers?? Winters are pretty mild. We get a dusting of snow once in a while, But I doubt I have to worry about this pond freezing. Yes, we do get to about 113 a couple of times during the summer, and the temps stay over 100 for over 90 days in a row. Your fish will grow gigantic and probably reproduce like crazy so this will dictate what types of plants to go with them. If I have pan fish, do I need other kinds of plants? Lilies and hornwort won't work, or in addidion to? Since fish are divided into two catagories as are water plants how far do you want to go to keep temps up or down? What does that mean, 2 catagories? I won't be messing with temps at all. They live or die in what's there. Low temps are much more of a problem than high But there are MANY species that will tolerate both. Filtration is far more important for fish than plants again by species but with that much water it should be very easy.lol If you want an edible or ornamental water plant garden design the filtration and management around them. It is certainly possible to have both but requires different choices. Where do I get that information? water gardening is far easier than terrestrial gardening particularly in a hot dry climate. I hope so. I never learned about gardening. So decide what you most want out of the pool, now pond actually more of a lake lol and go from there!!! You're right, aren't you? It really is more of a lake than a "pond". thanks for your thoughts. What other information do I need? Ella

Isn't Sienna Plantation in the jurisdiction of Missouri City? If so, their permitting and inspections process is very long and somewhat arbitrary in nature. I just finished building one in Missouri City and it was problematic with the city at every step. They would make up requirements that were not published anywhere. I have built pools in a lot of places and never had so many silly requirements. They are nice folks at the city, but I doubt I would ever build there again. One thing these cities forget in their attempt to govern construction in their city is that it costs you the homeowner a lot more money to get a pool there than elsewhere. Pearland is fine...they have permitting and inspections but they publish their requirements and the inspectors do not stray from them. Anyway, if Sienna Plantation is in Missouri City, permits and inspections should have been obtained by your PB.