this is my pond last year or so. it no longer has any floaters as they all died. we have something called a bog vine that's an underwater vine that sends shoots and leaves that float on the surface, but not like a water lilly. and instead of hostas beside the basin, there's this spikey, grass-like plant that's growing like crazy, oh yeah, and we added some water cress to the bowl, which acts as a natural filter, along with a 5 gallon bucket filter we made ourselves.
in it we have currently:
1 blue/gray speckled koi
1 orange koi
1 yellow/gold/black snakeskin koi
1 platinum koi
1 black and white butterfly koi
1 peachy-orange butterfly koi
1 calico shubunkin
1 white comet with an orange head
basically, we have the pump submurged behind the little water fountain. a tube runs from the pump into the top of the 5 gallon bucket filter we made. there's a tube going down the center of the bucket, so the water goes down to the bottom of the bucket, through the filter material, to the top, where another tube carries it to that pitcher thing. oh yeah, we have a splitter on the tube running from the pump. one goes to the filter, the other by-passes the filter and goes straight to the basin. we have valves on it so we can shut each one off or turn it on. it's like this because in the winter, we have to by-pass the filter and drain the filter or else it will freeze solid. there's not a problem with waste because we don't feed the fish all winter. their metabilisms slow down so much it can actually kill them to feed them.