A Solar Powered Fountain for the Stock Tank

I was told by the employees at multiple feed and hardware stores that water agitators were on back order and ones that didnt require connection to a hose simply didnt exist. For a long time, it seemed like they might be right. I found a way around the problem by buying toddler bath time fountains from china that were battery powered and utilizing them as a water agitator for the stock tank. You just need something to continuously break the surface of and jiggle the water so that algae cant grow and insects cant lay eggs. Well these made in china bath fountains werent meant to run continuously and have the tiny screws untwisted and retwisted each day. The screws would become stripped quickly as they had to be tightened a lot to keep the water proof seal but they were down in these deep holes that were impossible to see because the screw driver took up the space you would be looking at. Either water would get in and destroy the mechanism because i was babying the screws trying not to strip them or the screws would get stripped and i would then not be able to tighten them enough to keep water from getting into the battery compartment. I went through about 1 nine dollar bath fountain per week. Some only lasted a couple days. They were **** is what im trying to say, but i had no other option so i just kept buying them. The well is a sulphur well. I filter the water for drinking by hand in 1/2 gallon increments and that is what myself, the dogs, and the chickens live off of. So, a hose does not and cannot come into play here. Pumping raw sulphur water into the stock tank for the dogs would defeat the purpose of having it. Its emergency drinking water for when Cashew gets excited and dumps all their smaller water bowls by running them over like a crazed wild horse. The day finally came where i had to accept that these bath fountains were not going to be carried by the store anymore. They were being replaced by toys that had to be lifted an emptied by hand. I was forced to find a more permanent solution. After two days of scouring the internet during every spare moment between work and chores i found a solar powered water fountain. It came with 6 or 7 different attachments. I tried every one of them only to learn that each one sprayed the water so high it emptied onto the dirt surrounding the stock tank when the sun was at full height. In indirect sunlight the fountain ran a little bit but at full sun during the heat of the day that fountain sprayed feet into the air and no matter what attachment i tried, it always emptied some of the water onto the dirt surrounding the stock tank. I was wasting precious drinking water, but the fountain actually worked and after trying so hard and looking so long to find a fountain that required neither electricity or a hose, how could i toss it aside now?! Finally, i got an idea. Would the fountain run without any attachment? I dont see why not. Its supposed to be water proof. I removed the attachment and put all the attachments in a bag in my drawer in the house. I then waited for daylight to check if it would work. Sure enough, without the attachment pressurizing and channeling the water through smaller holes or slits, the water only traveled a foot into the air and came down onto the fountain itself. The water landed with enough force to bounce back up and out slightly, rocking the fountain itself and splashing small stray droplets into the water. It was enough to qualify as agitation. Success! Without any attachment on the fountain now sprayed water completely inside the boundary of the stock tank and was not watering the surrounding dirt. I pulled the fountain inside during cloudy days but during sunny or partially sunny days i kept it outside in the stock tank so it could do its thing. I did keep two half-used bath time battery powered toddler fountains so that i could put one in the stock tank if it was raining or cloudy for 4+ days. I should mention that i attempted two additional solutions between the bath fountain and the solar powered fountain. The swimming frog from china arrived broken and nobody wanted to assume responsibility for that. Neither the seller nor the company whose site i found the seller through wanted to provide a refund for the item so i just ate the cost and learned a long overdue lesson about buying plastic toys from china through american websites (the presence of a middle man allows everyone to point the finger at somebody else when it comes to responsibility and often times the product description and policies are vague and general because they’ve been translated into another language). The swimming turtles were a bust as well. There’s a sensor that turns it off when its been running for 4 minutes. Though i looked for this in the product description, it was not mentioned. Important things get lost in translation when the product description is translated into another language. I donated those to goodwill. It came with a pack of two turtles. Ive wasted so much time and effort trying to come up with a solution for this 44 gallon stock tank you can imagine how relieved i was when this solar powered fountain arrived and worked! I kept the box in case it ever stops working. I’ll know what its called and i can use the box to google where i can purchase another one. The solar powered fountain is a much more permanent and functional solution to our problem of stagnant water.