Water from abandoned pool

Hi, I have a old abandoned pool in the back yard. It hasn't been in use for at least 5 years. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to water my plants with the water that is currently in the pool. If not I am thinking of draning it out and converting it into a rainwater storage tank, but I would much rather save the work and use the water currently in the pool if it is safe to use.

Thanks for any help.

Your nose will tell you if it is OK. If is smells foul, of sulfur, that would indicate anaerobic bacterial activity and you don't want to be watering your plants with that. If it does smell bad, aerating it with an aquarium bubbler pump will take care of that problem and convert it from bad to good bacteria.

Hi Mike,
I sort of agree with John I that your nose will tell you, I honestly probably wouldn't use the water just to be safe unless I absolutely needed to use it. That being said, your post reminded me of something I saw awhile back about a couple turning there old pool into a kind of aquaculture greenhouse.

http://www.homedesignfind.com/green/turn-your-foreclosed-swimming-pool-into-a-permaculture-fish-farm/

That was the best link I could find for it although I thought I found it before on a different site.

If it was me I might try and turn it into an Oehler style greenhouse by covering the top with a green house cover or hoop house whatever your budget will allow and then constructing an elevated bed system inside of the pool itself. The craziest version of which might be, a large scaffolding inside the pool made of either metal or water resistant wood and then fill the whole deep end with an aquaculture and above that have the scaffolding support raised beds. Would be a lot of work but probably really cool in the end. If you do decide to turn it into a cistern that is going to be one giant cistern .

Anyhow good luck sounds like it will be a fun project.

Daniel

The Garden Pool folks are actually in Phoenix (actually a 'burb called Mesa) - they have a really interesting setup!

Thanks Jennifer, I checked out they're webpage, they have some newer video on vimeo where they have goats now for cheese. Pretty awesome inspiring stuff thanks for the link.