Hmm, could I use an old paddling pool to make a wildlife pond?

[HasaDigaEebowai]

I would really like a wildlife pond in the garden and have asked DH and the DC to help me do it for my birthday. I'm wondering if I could use an old paddling pool as a liner (just because we have one and its sitting around unused). It was quite a decent pool, not a very thin one. Or do people think it will deteriorate in the sunlight?

I think you’d be better off ordering a pond liner on line. We have a small wildlife pond and used a rigid preformed liner.

I’d be concerned that the paddling pool would degrade over time and that it wouldn’t be safe for wildlife, chemicals leaching out of it.

I know a pond liner would be better but I was trying to reuse what we had. Good point about potential chemicals.

A bit more googling has revealed that it would probably be ok but it would be better to use it as the underliner and put a proper liner on the top.

Now I need to reveal to DH and the DS's (aka the manual labour) that I was anticipating something a bit larger than they probably were...