Reddit reviews Savio Engineering SF01 Savio Springflo Bio Biological Filter Media, Green

The pond looks to be a great one for longterm viability. It's deep, which is good to keep the fish alive during the winter, and it's long and narrow. These are a tad easier to maintain because the water can follow one path. From Plant Filter / Waterfall to pump. This keeps the water moving which thus thwarts as many anerobic zones from building up. (Anerobic means no oxygen. It's a bacterial zone where Nitrates are converted to Ammonia - fish don't like ammonia. This is the exact opposite of what you want to happen.)

To start with, plants are your friend. They are more vital to the wellbeing of a pond than fish. You can have a pond w/ no fish and just plants and it's great, but if you have a pond with no plants and just fish, it's a horrible situation. One that is full of chemicals and stress over diseased fish.

Regarding the plants, when they multiply that means they're healthy. It's the same thing that all plants do, but pond plants -since they have ample and abundant water and food - grow quickly. This is good, but better to keep it in check. There are three basic types of plants you need for proper pond balance and filtration.

• First is an underwater grass. The ones I use the most are Anacharis and Hornwort. YMMV as I'm just seeing that Anacharis is prohibited in Chicago. These plants do some decent filtering, but work mainly with the oxygenating of the water. Photosynthesis + daytime = Dissolved Oxygen for the fishes to breath. (Note: I hear Hornwort, under certain conditions, can produce more CO2 during the nighttime hours than it produces O2 during the daytime hours. Apparently fish have died as a result.)
  
  
• Second is a plant to shade the pond. This can certainly be a tree above the pond, but otherwise plants like Hyacinth and Water Lilies will do a good job blocking the sun from getting into the water. The reason for this is really just to thwart algae. When algae has light and food it will grow. So the whole point here is to thwart algae on all fronts while trying to maintain a good looking pond.
  
  
• Third is the most important. They are labeled collectively as 'Marginals', but really these are any plant that grows up outside the pond. 'Marginal' as in they grow on the 'margin' of the pond. They vary from bushy - Mint, Lizard Tail, and Celery, to tall and thin - Horsetail, Rush, and Iris.
  
  My baseline for an ideal plant filter, which in your case would be a smallish stock tank / waterfall weir on one side of your pond full of Mint, Corkscrew Rush, Horsetail, and some tall plants like Umbrella Palm, Giant Reed, Cattail. All while making sure you have room for a Canna. These are some of my favorite plants. But you can pick and choose as you like. The essential point is to have a variation of small / bushy and tall / thin plants as they have different filtering qualities. I am told the tall and thin ones are great for good, heavy duty, filtering, whereas the bushy ones are great for quick filtering. Either way, they're pretty. This stock tank gets water flowing into it, pushed through the plants, and then lets it go through a waterfall.
  
  Now all this is just to process the Ammonia waste from fish. Ammonia kills fish, and you really can't see it. Apparently a reddish tinge develops in the water, but I've never seen it. But, fish produce Ammonia, so if you don't have your three types of filters you will have issues utilizing all these awesome plants to keep your pond clean.
  
  
• First is a Mechanical filter. This is just something to get the floaties out of the water. Something that will coat the roots / block the water flow / gunk up the pump. Just get it out.
  
  
• Second is a Biofilter. This is a colony of Nitrobacters whose sole purpose in life is to convert Ammonia into Nitrates and Nitrites. You can read more about this cycle here. It's pretty important. Now, MY favorite biofilter is a 5g bucket of lava rocks surrounding the pump. I know it's not the prettiest nor easiest way to do things, but it gets the job done and it's cheap. If you'd like you can use items like Springflo and whatnot. But essentially this is just a home for your bacteria colony, which are living everywhere in your pond if the water is slow enough, but having a proper filter is important.
  
  
• Third is the plant filter. Using Marginals and other such plants you position them in such a fashion where the water is forced to go through them. This allows the water to move through the root systems and get stripped of its Nitrates. By doing this in an overkill fashion you won't have any algae problems because the algae won't have anything to eat.
  
  Doing something like this, or an approximation of this, will keep the pond clear and the fish happy. You can get Nitrate and Ammonia testers to see what your levels are in case that might be the issue. I must say that multiple fish without any plant filtration and no algae makes me suspicious.
  
  EDIT: Things