Oxymel of Squill wrote:

no, soo you'll be testing and shoving in chemicals to lower the ph and
then to raise it again

He definitely didn't say that. I wouldn't leave it more than a couple of
days before adding plants. Fish, _maybe_ a few weeks. Then you start
testing the water quality. Once the whole nitrogren cycle gets stabilized,
you can add more fish. There's no need to mess with chemicals, but you
don't want to add so many fish at once that they all die in an ammonia or
nitrite spike.

a pond (at least) needs a year's cycle to sort out its own chemical
balance

A backyard pond, as such, will _never_ properly balance. It's too small to
be a full ecosystem, but it'll be as close as it's likely to get much
sooner than a year. And I guarantee you that as soon as you add the first
fish, you're starting over in the balancing game.

After 6 weeks switched on UV to keep it clear, and that was it
functioning pond.

To each his own. I don't like artificially clear ponds, but if it works for
you :-)
--
derek