I am no expert by any means, but I will try to answer some of your questions
for you.
First of all, how big of pond is it? As for doing weekly, monthly water
changes, no you don't need to do that. Since you have a aquarium, I am sure
you are familiar with alage. The big difference in a pond and a aquarium, is
you need the alage in a pond, where you don't need it as much in a aquarium.
So don't panic if in the summer the alage really grows. With a pond you
realize, green is a pretty color. lol In the winter the main thing is to keep
a hole in the ice for gases to excape out of. You can use a bubbler or even a
de-icer to do this. Do a search on taking care of ponds, and you will find a
wealth of information out there. Everyone's pond is different though, so once
you learn the basics you have to just take the plunge and do what you think is
right, even though sometimes it isn't.
Jan
"Our Pond" Page
http://hometown.aol.com/pinkpggy/index.html