I totally agree, for such a small pond, I have gotten so much pleasure: watching birds splash around, the fish darting, and pond plants grow so fast too! I love sitting on my deck and just watching the pond. I was surprised that more people don't have the metal stock tank ponds, I guess they don't fit into every landscape though. I got my pond from Western Farm Center here in Santa Rosa, CA, which is just a farm supply center, anywhere you can buy livestock feed, chicken coops, or any other farm supply will most likely have stock tanks, but you may have to order the size you want, I did. Mine was $130 before tax, but it was definitely worth it. Digging is one of my absolute favorite blogs, even though I don't live in Texas, it's a great way to visit without having to deal with the heat, humidity, or mosquitos. Another one of my favorites is danger garden, she has an amazing eye for design and she has the same size stock tank as me, she actually has 11(!!) in total in her small Portland yard. Stock Tanks: They're not just for cows! Any way, I am so jealous of your pygmy purple trop. water lily, I really want a trop. too but they are so expensive! I think that's odd because they grow so darn fast. Really I want one of those Victoria amazonica water lilies, now I just need a bigger yard, heheh... But really though, I do want a trop, but I also want something with fragrance, really intense fragrance, and also dwarf, tall order, but if it's out there I WILL find it, Mwahaahhaaha!!! I don't know what color the flower is, because the friend who gave it to me had it in a tiny (1 ft tall, 2 ft wide) pond, so in all the years she had it, it never bloomed. No tags, either. So it will be a surprise, I will post pics when it blooms, and it will bloom, it better if it knows what's good for it. Here is a link that might be useful: Danger Garden-Pond

Need more information: Did you fertilize the lily when you planted it? Did you plant it in a pot, or is it in a mesh bag? Overfertilizing a lily can cause the leaves to die back and injure the plant. I would do a partial water change, replacing with fresh water. I don't use rain water in any of my lily containers, just fresh tap water. Likewise, not fertilizing at all might make the plant's growth slow down, the old pads might not be replaced with healthy new ones. Some people use Miracle Grow spiles or Jobs spikes, others use Osmocote pellets, others use plant tabs made for aquatics. Those mesh bags are, in my opinion, completely worthless. I have never managed to grow a healthy water lily in one. Water lilies generally do better when planted in a large container of clay-based soil. Garden soil will also work, but you'll need to hold it down with sand and gravel. Otherwise, there could be aphids on the pads or maybe a caterpillar that you haven't spotted yet. Moths will also lay their eggs on plants, and the larvae are tiny green caterpillars that easily escape notice. I don't think you need to scrub out the tank. If it was used for animals, it shouldn't have anything in it that would harm your plants.

Ok, let me try again then. Well, whaddya know, it worked. It just took a really long time so I thought it wasn't working. So that was the first, and that is a cistern pump that belonged to someone in dh's family. Later, we expanded the walkway and I moved the tank and put tropical lilies in it. They like the hotter water in a tank. Well, it worked once, and then just kept spinning instead of loading the second picture. This is the same tank moved next to the deck. Last year the rust was discoloring the water, so I filled it with dirt and made a bog out of it. Now I need to empty all that dirt out of it and move it out a few feet because the crinum shade it too much. (I have a bucket or water under the pump so it can "pump" a couple of gallons when someone wants to play with it. Here is my newest tank, a round one. I bought it for a vivaporous lily that has been sending new plantlets all over the pond. I don't want them to mix with my other lilies so it gets its own space. (The brick and rock are so I won't run over the fringe flower when backing the lawnmowever out of the shed.) Here are these two tanks together. I had a great stand of horseherb and had to put the round tank right on top of it. :( When it grows in again and anchors the sand base, I'll remove the circle of rocks. (I hate to show you this picture because my yard isn't pretty like roselee or jolana. Dh has been replacing boards in the deck and his mess is in the background.) I didn't think I had a picture of the other tank, because I've never taken one on purpose, but it is in the background here. I usually have the wagon on the grass side and other stuff in front of it on the deck side, because the cat thinks it is sushi time when he can get to it. I need to get the goldfish out of it and put them in the big pond, and then put mosquitofish in here. They're harder to see and harder to catch.

I use a old pool float to shade my pond half of the year. It isn't in the water just across the top. It also protects against green herons. The old rule was an inch of fish per gallon but you can push that with filtration. Gold fish and comets can be messy fish. Koi need much, much more real estate but you don't have any of those. That you don't feed is really helping keep things from rapidly declining. During the summer, sometimes water doesn't hold enough oxygen. You have probably gone by small lakes and can see the algae that looks like bread soaked in water all over the top of the lake. Many lakes get an algae bloom that sucks all the remaining oxygen out of the water leaving the fish gasping at the top and then dead in the morning. You could add a good size airstone and airpump for the summer . I keep 4 stones and 2 pumps going all the time. I also have 2 filters, one bio and one pressurized. At one time I had too many fish for the gallons of pond. Now that things have thinned out due to age, things are much more stable. By providing some shade your water may clear a bit. Algae is a natural thing in water settings and your fish are eating it. Some algae is a good thing. If you run your net through it and its full, well, that be a bit much. I would pull as much out as I could and compost it for the garden. There are chemicals that will get rid of algae but... I have used them sparingly in the past and only at half dose. This year I just had a couple of weeks of a tiny bit of string algae. I gathered it and fed it to the fish, It was in my waterfall area so they couldn't get to it. Algae also feeds off fish waste. You have a plant and that helps balance things. Plants and fish make a happy pond. You could add some oxygenators like hornwort or parrot feather aquatic plants ( many more I can remember). Each state has some restrictions on water plants. I can't have water lettuce here because it's invasive but it can really clean up a pond. Same with Hyacinths. I used to keep a stock pond of those in case my pond needed some help but the Koi love to eat them and that makes a mess. You don't have to have crystal clear water. There is an upper limit on fish load. You can do water changes weekly, say 20%. If you are refilling with city water, then you might have to detoxify the chlorine. For that I use "Prime" by seachem. You can and should have a variety of plants. Marginals will go all year. Don't plant using garden soil. Use small rocks and gravel. Lillies have dormant times. You need to feed your lillies when they start to get active next spring. Use an aquatic pellet fertilizer. YOu place it in the pot under the rocks near the roots. You could also have a pot of water iris which are good for water purification. Yellow Flag does a good job. I had to order it on line. I also have Game cock which is proliferous so much I had to cut it up and throw away 1/2. You might find a garden center with pond plants. Watch for spawning behavior and maybe water changes would eliminate some eggs??? don't know, I have all males. I didn't plan it that way. Don't do multiple changes of whatever you have been doing. If something is helping you won't know what exactly it was. Likewise if it causes a problem. Do small changes and maybe keep a journal so you know what works for your unique pond environment. Good Luck!