Do you have water troughs that look like this??? What can you do about it???
These large troughs can either be galvanized metal or Rubbermaid often hold 50 to 100 gallons or more and to clean them is 1) Time Consuming 2) Messy and 3) Wasteful in light of our recent drought situations here in California. So what can be done? Head on down to your local Walmart or Petstore and pick up some goldfish… That’s right… gold fish!
We had put this tank into use and I did not have any fish to place into the tank. Within a few weeks of hot sunny weather our tank was looking like this and It was then that I made a point to go shopping! I placed about 10 fish in this tank and in a few weeks the tank looks much better. Now mind you the tank is not going to be crystal clear… but the fish will keep the algae down and the water clear! We also prefer to have Automatic water in place simply because of the number of animals we maintain. You do then have to be careful to check your troughs frequently to ensure they are filling properly and not overflowing. We prefer these little giant type floats as they seem to stand up to the abuse they receive from the animals better than the ball type floats. Horses and cattle destructive?? Hard to believe right!! For smaller pens like our goat pens, donkey pens, or individual horse pens these plastic auto waters cant be beat! They are easy to install, and easy to keep clean with a few goldfish in them. I prefer these over the stainless steel water bowls often seen in barns since they do not hold any significant volume of water in the event your power goes out or your well is on the blink (which unfortunately can happen often living out in the country!)… with the plastic bucket waters you at least have a little water available for your animals until you can haul water in, and you have a sufficient size bucket to fill up for your animals to drink from.
Here is another example.,. this is our cattle water trough. For this tank the fish were put in when we filled the tank up and they are keeping it manageably clean. If you are looking for low maintenance clean water… I highly suggest you try this water set up… and add some fish!