I know it's not a saltwater question...

but any of you guys have ponds? I have a jack daniels half whiskeybarrel pond going on my deck, and I just cleaned it up for spring.

Last year was my first attempt and I didn't do very well. I think my problems were:

1) inadequate circulation
2) nutrient overload (had no idea the lilly pot was supposed to have sand on top)
3) low oxygen
4) inadequate light

About the only thing I did right was have a UV sterilizer on it.

The steps I have taken for fixing it this year are:

1) put a HOT Magnum canister filter on it.
2) put pea gravel over the tops of the potted plants (only 2, a black elephant ear and a tropical lilly "william Mclane".
3) Have a Mag 7 pumping water from the pond, into the UV sterilizer, and into a per-formed water fall tier (from lowes) which falls back in near the far edge of the poind. (Hopefully this takes care of oxygenation and inadequate circulation.

so, anyhow. What I am wondering:

1) above sound good?
2) anyone around here have mosquito fish? I talked to richard abotu getting them but apparently the suppliers want to sell thousands, not little numbers like a LFS can handle.
2) advice on planting.

I would like to put a grass or something in the background, water mint, and maybe creeping jenny in the water fall, but I don't know a lot about any of these plants.

Any feedback would be incredibly welcome.

Oh, I am going out to water garden gems this weekend to get some plant baskets and potting media, and maybe a goldfish to put in there as well.