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Hi Tom, You can also use a heat pipe. At 8ft in the ground the temperature is stable year around at 50� in most of the USA. The second law of thermal dymanics states:
"heat flows from a higher source to a colder source" So install a "insulated" stand pipe (pipe#1) in one end of your tank down thru the frost line for your area in to a larger diameter horizontal pipe at 8ft then return to into another vertical stand pipe (pipe#2) back into the tank above the desired water line. Water will be drawn from pipe#1 to the under ground horizontal heat pipe thus heating the water to around 45�. The heated water expands and flows back into the stock tank thru pipe#2 as stated by the 2nd law of thermal dymanics. You will want your supply and return pipes in the center of your tank surrounded by water as the water will be a insulator at that point. If you look on the net there is a system drawing that uses simular engineering of a hill side water tank. It works close to what I described without any explantion.
There is also another way but you run the risk of having too much hot of water. At one end of the tank install a clear plexy-glass cover sealed to the top of the tank with a veritcal piece towards the bottom of the tank to seperate the hot and cold sides.
The sun will solar heat the enclosed tank end and the cold tank water will move in and out of the solar collector trying to equalize temperature. You could use Butyl caulk for a gasket sealer and glue to hold the solar glass on. Butyl caulk is some very tuff sealant. If your in snow country then you would want to 45� the collector glazing to the tank horizontal to keep it clean. T_Bone
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