"pete wrote in message .

We went down to Wickes DIY over the weekend and bought a 50gallon
coldwater
tank(the kind you'd use as cold water storage in the house) to use as a
fish
pond for our patio. We won't be burying the rectangular black plastic
container into the ground but leaving it in the corner of the patio area.
We've seen similar looking black plastic containers in large garden
centres
selling stuff for fish ponds but they were all round, we needed a square
or
rectangular shaped container to fit the corner of the patio.

Anyone know if this is Ok to use as a fish pond? will exposure to sunlight
&
weather etc degrade the plastic & poison the water & fish?

Yes, it's OK for the fish, some fish tanks they live in for years are a lot
smaller than that. The plastic is stable, it's for human use, but it will be
slowly degraded by light although it takes years (I've had some outside as
filters for 20 years.).
However, you will need some form of filtration to ensure the removal of any
toxic waste, an internal powered fish tank filter will work OK, only ever
wash the filter sponge in tank water as you are trying to build up the
nitrifying bacteria which is what does the work.
A bigger problem will be that if the sides are exposed to sunlight,
especially early morning, the temperature of the water will rise quickly and
put the fish under stress causing disease etc. I suggest you use some log
roll or similar to cover and protect the sides. A brick wall would be better
and would stop anyone banging the sides of the bins and terrifying the fish.

We've filled it
up with water & had it sitting with some weeds & oxygenating plants for
over
a week now, should we put some fish in or do we wait longer for the water
to
settle?

It's much too early to buy and put fish in a pond, late May is the earliest
you should attempt it. Most of these fish are bred in Singapore or Israel,
so imagine being out there all your life and then being chucked into our
weather now without a coat. If you have bought pond plants they also have
either come from abroad or been forced under glass.

there's a little scummy, bubbly bits on the water surface, don't
really like the looks of it... but me thinks they're the air bubbles
that's
come off the insides of the plastic container. I kind shakes it about
every
now & then to get them off the sides to the surface. Any advice anyone?

Didn't you wash and scrub out the bin first? Maybe manufacturing chemicals
etc.
But tap water contains gas which has to bubble out, a glass of water from
the tap often goes milky with these bubbles.

--
Bob

www.pooleygreengrowers.org.uk/ about an Allotment site in
Runnymede fighting for it's existence.