Pond advice needed please

[badger]

My new house has an artificial pond (brick-sided) and what I suspect is a dead filter nearby. I would like to revive it but have no idea how the current arrangement is supposed to work or what I should do with it. Fish would be nice eventually. Can anyone advise?

[hell raizer]

i've got a fountain in my pond and it's rigged up so that the water goes through the filter to clean the water. i have solar lights around my pond which is lovely when it gets dark :)

[neepnipper]

You need a filter so either get the one you've got working or buy a new one.
Put in some pond plants like elodea etc.
Get the water tested for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph, if you take a sample of the water in to Pets at Home they will do this for free, then, if the water tests ok and you've had your filter running a good few days start by adding a couple of small fish, as a guide you should add 2.5cm of fish length for every 150cm squared of water surface area, then leave at least a week before adding more fish until you are fully stocked, good idea to get the water tested every week for the first 6 weeks or so.

[badger]

I would love a little fountain but need to see how my present system works.

Neepnipper, that's just my problem. It would be good to get the filter working but the manufacturers don't want to know and I have no idea how to do it. Need someone to have a look and see what's going on as it's a bit of a mess just now.