Neat Idea for a Fountain

Lately as a stress reduction thing I have been reading the kinds of books that have titles like  "Great patio ideas!" "Porches and Decks" and "Pools, Ponds and Fountains" that are many pages of beautiful pictures of paths, fountains, pools, bridges, decks, etc to daydream about.

Today I was messing with an inflatable exercise ball, the kind you can sit on, and thought about it... If it was cut in half carefully, that's an impressively thick flexible plastic that would work like a pair of pond liners for a neat fountain!

It has a fill valve, that if it was thought about well before cutting the ball,could be in position to bring a water line in through the side or bottom.

When they tile shower floors, they generally put a chunk of heavy duty plastic under it, the shower pan, to make sure if the tile cracks the underfloor doesn't get damaged. That ball is pretty much a shower pan. There has to be ways to misuse that!  :D

Pearl Sutton wrote:Today I was messing with an inflatable exercise ball, the kind you can sit on, and thought about it... If it was cut in half carefully, that's an impressively thick flexible plastic that would work like a pair of pond liners for a neat fountain! ... :D  

Here to play devil's advocate:
1. What shape is the ball when there's *no* air in it? How big is it?  It is not as stretchy as a balloon, but is it actually big enough with no tension on it?

2. There are some exercise ball-like toys that are probably designed to have reasonable UV stability, but how true is that of exercise balls? It isn't just about how long it will last - will it leak nasty stuff into the water as it's degrading? I suspect if you build a fountain, the birds will come! So you may find it will be good for holding water, but need something to line the liner to keep the sun off?

3. The former owners of our property had built a much larger than ball sized double pond with waterfall.
The issues were:
A) no reservoir to accommodate the difference between "just sitting" and "water flowing" states. You may not want to use electricity to run this all night, so you might need to be able to scoop some water out as you're turning it off.
B) A *lot* of water evaporated during a sunny day with all that water running, so the lower pond got too low on water and damaged the pump.
C) they didn't include any sort of a filter, so a lot of crap built up which was difficult to remove.

So I would consider easy ways to clean it and maintain it from the get-go. That said, the cute water features that have water coming out of the spout of a watering can are darn cute and would likely be in the ball park of the size you're dealing with. If you end up deciding that the balls just won't work, getting a food grade plastic barrel might not be too hard in your area and I've seen lots of those turned into pocket ponds. New barrels seem to have less plastic than old ones and don't stay round, but I've asked for old bicycle rims at local bike shops and used those to reinforce the cut edge to keep it acceptably round.  Good luck and post pictures please.

I'm not planning to do this. I want a decent sized pond, not a fountain :D

It's still round, I was actually letting the air out, and it flattened down to a flat ball  :D
Let me go measure it. ...   That's interesting. It's about a 24 inch ball when inflated, I shook it out to a flat disc, and it's still about 24 inches across.

And yes, fountains without huge tanks dry up too fast for my taste. And around here they are mosquito breeding grounds.

And personally If i made one, I'd be skimming it with mastic and putting rocks on it, but that's me. I don't want exposed plastic.

But it IS a way cool thing to think about. It IS heavier plastic than I expected. I hadn't ever thought about it before. :D

I think this a very cool idea!
I can see doing the pizza oven thing, forming a pond around the ball, complete with a bottom drain and inlets, before burying it.
If you supported it on a small tire, you could have a 3/4 or 4/5 of a sphere.
This would create a pond more volume and less surface area.
Taken to the extreme and you could make spherical water tank.

if you stuffed the ball with something like gravel, you could put a wick and a fill pipe, and use it as a buried water reservoir for a fruit tree.

That’s a solid idea, and yes it can absolutely work as a simple, low-maintenance fountain if you design it with consistent water flow and filtration in mind.
The key is making sure your water source and pump are balanced. Most DIY fountain setups run into trouble when the pump is either too strong (causing splash-out and water loss) or too weak (resulting in poor circulation). If you’re using a recycled container or gravity-fed system, aim for a steady, gentle flow rather than trying to push a dramatic spray. It’ll look better and require less upkeep.
One thing that often gets overlooked is debris management. Even a small fountain will clog quickly if leaves, algae, or sediment get into the system. A simple pre-filter (like a mesh screen over the intake) goes a long way. If you're pulling from a pond, placing the pump slightly elevated off the bottom helps avoid sucking in sludge.
For example, I’ve seen setups where people used a basic submersible pump feeding a vertical pipe or decorative spillway, and the difference-maker wasn’t the design it was keeping the intake clean and matching the pump to the height of the fountain. Even modest systems can look great when they run consistently.
If you’re scaling this up for a larger pond, something like Midwest Pond Pond and Lake Fountains https://midwestponds.com/collections/pond-fountains follows the same principles, just with more robust flow control and aeration benefits built in.
Takeaway: keep the flow simple, protect your pump from debris, and size everything to match your water source ou’ll get a much more reliable (and enjoyable) fountain.

Really cool upcycling idea. I like how this turned into a practical discussion about water flow, evaporation, and maintenance rather than just the container itself.