Our pond is dirt based - no liner. It was a former cellar under a small building but kept filling with water. The previous owner filled it up with rocks. We tore down the building, rearranged the rocks and let Mother nature take over. The pond filled with water. Our gutter water runs into the pond to help keep it full. We have an overflow running under our driveway and down a hill to keep the pond from overflowing. Fish and one now large water lily are doing well. A filtration system was added 5 years after the original set up. Muck is a problem so a few years ago we removed the fish and sucked out all that we could. Instead of using small rocks again, we replaced them with various sizes of field stone. We have 30+ fish and they seem to thrive. We never feed them. Our situation is unique. This pond somehow links underneath our patio as the fish winter under our patio. They swim through the rocks and re-emerge in the Spring. We have no idea what is under our patio. . how much water is held. . how deep. .but we know when the pond gets low the fish disappear. I do add tap water during the summer months as the pond does evaporate rather quickly. It's not likely the chlorine will hurt the fish as I add it in gradually over a few days. Sometimes I put dechlor in but usually I am careful not to add too much. Our tap water has never hurt the fish that are in there. In fact, as the water is added, the fish swim underneath - possibly enjoying the cooling hose water. This pond is approximately 10' x 10' and 2' deep.

My pond is still a work in progress. I'm filling in with annuals now, but every year I add more perennials. These are last year's pics. I'm going to put a bridge between my drycreek and pond. I'll add a path of rocks and plants right up to the bridge so that it looks like a creek going under the bridge... I hope :-). Here is a link that might be useful: My Pond and Drycreek

You're asking such great questions! I can't help much with this one, as I've only started a pond from scratch. And we filter with a bog - no mechanical filtration, so I can't help there either. As for the plants, as long as they stay wet they'll be happy. Kiddie pool maybe? Try to keep them at the same water level they are used to and use that good pond water and you should have great success. We broke down our patio pond and moved it inside for the winter and the plants are thriving nicely - even the hardy lily, which surprised me. They will probably wane a bit from the lack of long days of sunshine, but so far, so good. Hopefully someone has some ideas for you for your other questions!

You can always insulate your pond too depending how big it is..I use 2x4's and put them across the pond..Then I staple thick 7 ml plastic to the boards and hold the edges of the plastic down over lapping the edge of my pond with rocks..then I lay pink insulation over that then another layer of plastic to keep it dry....Then you could poke a hole through all of that making like a chimney with PCV pipe sticking out of your pond tall enough not to get covered by snow and pushed into your pond to allow air to escape..Makes sense? I also have a friend that throw boards over his and then piles on full bags of leaves which which insulate and keep his pond from freezing.. You should always have water movement bubbling to the surface to prevent the top from completely freezing...