You are probably going to need a UK person to give you
the best answers on plants in your part of the world but a few marginal plants,
that grow with their feet in water and stems, leaves, reeds above water, an
aquatic lily and a couple underwater plants (all of it is underwater) would do
nicely.

Filters - if you look inside of it you should see some padding, a sheet of it,
or some coarse brushes. This would be the mechanical part of the filter. It
serves to remove large particles of gunk (fish waste, mud, plant debris) from
the water. It needs to be cleaned off once in a while.
The 'bio' part of it will be some kind of smaller media, strips of material,
funny looking balls, maybe sheets of stuff with larger holes in it, finer
looking stuff with rough edges. This is stuff that allows the bacteria to
colonize on it. The bacteria that takes the fish waste from ammonia and through
the nitrogen cycle. If it is working fine your pond will test zero for ammonia.

I would put in your new plants. Then wait two weeks. Then I would add three
fish. That way your filter will still be able to handle any frogs and newts who
show up later.


kathy :-)
algae primer
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html