I love your satellite dish idea! and the tiles will be beautiful!

Still thinking about ideas to solve the floating reservoir problem. 1st - drainage away from under the tub, like tiling around a house? 2nd - a way to weight the reservoir with out taking up volume? Deeper reservoir, thus more water weight? (Sorry, I can't remember if digging deeper was an issue). 3rd - some sort of unobtrusive hooks over the lip of the satellite dish driven into the ground to anchor it? Dunno, just random thoughts to ponder.

sheepco - many thanks for your thoughts. Let me address them. Believe tiling/providing drainage would be impossible - at least for this little old lady.

I'll drain the reservoir today so I can lift it out and then scoop out the water below. The soil at the bottom is yucky heavy heavy yellow clay. And this is at the lowest spot in my back garden. Have drainage piping running just behind it, at about a 6" depth. I can add at least one big chunk of concrete to the reservoir to weigh it. And like your idea of lipped hooks. Will go to the welding shop to get some made. These I can use to secure the reservoir itself. May have him make them out of angle iron. Brilliant idea!!

Don't the rest of you be shy now. Add to sheepco's ideas if you can.

Thanks.

Rosie

Back again with a new question. I regraded in an attempt to keep the reservoir from floating out of the ground , more rain came and it floated again. Have now dug out about 2 1/2" around and under the reservoir and plan to pour concrete. Will pour the bottom, insert and level reservoir, then pour concrete for the sides. Well, that's my plan. I'm writing to ask if you think this will solve my problem.

A bit more info: the second floating occured after heavy rain and no water in reservoir, but there were about 20#s of rock in it.

Meanwhile, what an eyesore! Hope my concrete solution is sound. Looking forward to reading your thoughts.

Rosie

Rosie,
20 lbs of rock is about the same as 2.5 gallons of water in the tub. If you want to keep this tub in the ground the answer is simple and that is keep it full of water. Based on your pictures the top of the tub is above the ground around it. So as long as the water in the tub is higher then the water around in the ground the tub will not raise up. Adding the rock to the tub with the water will also help. Putting the concrete around and under it may do it also or if it is not done correctly it could make it worse.
Mike

Mike, thanks for taking the time to try to help. The tub was full when it first came out of the ground. The second time, it only had the rocks in it.

Obviously don't want to make matters worse. That's why I posed my question re concrete under and around the reservoir. And I'm also questioning whether 2" pour of concrete all around will do the trick.

Having great weather for the next two days. Have 5+ bags of concrete. Delaying the pour until someone more expert than I validates this idea for me.

In a holding pattern,
Rosie, Sugar Hill, GA

Rosie,
If I am correct by looking at your pictures I would say that you are looking to use this tub as a reservoir with the dish on top with tile cemented in place with a fountain going up through the center. Is the tub going to support the weight of this dish and tile? What is the diameter of the tub? Any idea how much weight the dish and attached tile is going to weigh? I assume that there will be a pump in the tub. Any idea how much the pump and fountain will weigh? How deep is the tub and how much of the tub is above ground level? With this information I determine how much more weight would be required to keep it down even when empty.
Mike

"And this is at the lowest spot in my back garden."

Have you considered putting in some fill dirt to raise the level of your basin and landscaping around it? If you ever decided to move it, this would be a lot easier to work with than concrete.