Conditioning a Wine Barrel

[sAroock]

Hi

Im setting up a container pond ready for spring and summer.
I'm using a oak half wine barrel (40G) as it looks most appealing, but its not without problems. I need to properly clean and remove the nasties from the wood.

Before I purchased it, the barrel had been in water, refilled 6 times for 3 months. I currently have it in dirty greenly algae water in full sun. This is a bid to clean it naturally, making bacteria deteriorate the bad stuff. Its been 2 weeks and now im seeing mosquito larvae and slime on da wood. Think this is a good sign? Is my barrel ready, at least aquatic-plant friendly ready?


appreciate any input or previous experiences.

*i dont want the hassle and cost of pond liner.