VIVOHOME 4-in-1 Pond Filter Fountain Kits, 1370 GPH Water Pump for Pond

Short Review: I recommend this filter. It is extremely good at filtering waste and clarifying water. It's very easy to install and is a decent price for what it does. However if this filter is going in water that has fish in it I strongly recommend removing the uvc bulb before putting the pump in the water as it will kill beneficial bacteria as well. The fish need the good bacteria. Long Review: I got this filter to deal with an ammonia spike I noticed in my 150 gallon pond. It was bad, about 1ppm. By the grace of God the guppies and danios were still in there breeding up a storm. Just because they can endure it doesn't mean they should. Not long after doing the water test one of my chickens showed up for a drink and to snack on some salvia. To my horror she took a huge dump in the pond. That explains the ammonia despite all the plants growing in there. Surely the local wildlife has been doing the same. I bit the bullet and ordered this. No amount of plants can counter that kind of abuse on such a small pond. It only took this pump about a day to make the water crystal clear. But a word that kept popping up in the instructions began to haunt me. The word was "sterilize." I loved how clear it made the water. However I was concerned as to how it would affect the beneficial bacteria. I let the pump run for a week then checked the water again. I used an API Master Test Kit. The ammonia had gone down a bit. It was 0.5 ppm. Then I checked the nitrite and it was terrible. I had never, ever seen nitrites so bad in any of my water gardens. That test tube looked like it had grape Kool Aid in it! After I got done freaking out I proceeded to do a water change big enough to water nearly my entire garden and removed the filter. I pulled the uvc lamp out of the filter and removed the uvc bulb. If you plan on doing this you must make sure the inside of the glass casing where the bulb is kept stays dry and is securely fastened to the filter. Obviously if it gets wet it will short out your pump and can electrify the water. Unfortunately the uvc lamp does not have an on off switch so this was my only option if I still intended on using this pump without slowing suffocating my fish to death. Nitrite is very toxic to fish and it is the beneficial bacteria that converts it into nitrate. Nitrate is much safer for fish in moderation, especially if plants are present. The bacteria can't convert anything if they're killed by uvc. After the changes I dosed it with Seachem Stability to replenish the bacteria colony. I let the pump run for another week without the bulb and tested the water again. Much better. The ammonia was down to 0.25 and the nitrites were 0. I let it run another week and both the ammonia and nitrite were eliminated and the nitrate was 40ppm. It's pretty well balanced now. Now all there is to do is make sure nitrate stays under control. This pump does exactly what it advertised and it does it a bit too well in my opinion. For that I won't knock off stars. I'll chalk up my trauma to my ignorance. So far nightly raccoon visitors haven't broken it so it's sturdy enough. The fountain looks nice. I like that it has different heads you can switch on. Ultimately I like this because of how quickly it clears up the water and it helped me solve my ammonia problem. I just wish there was easier way to turn off the uvc if using this for fish.

Years ago when I put my pond in I bought the Pond Guy all in one system that was like this mainly for extra filtration to assist my main filter and for a water feature in the shallow end of my 4,000 gallon pond. The Pond Guy all in one was garbage compared to this unit and cost over twice as much. In the spring I clean out but leave my KOI in the deep end. There's lots of muck left even after draining the pond by 4/5.... and adding fresh water. This unit has a great pump that provides a powerful water feature... it's impressive at the price point. The filter pads were caked with junk after three days after spring clean out. The design on this is simple and effective. MY only complaint is the filter media once it becomes clogged is not easily washed. Once the water feature starts to reduce substantially due to clogged filters you can clean them about once and then you need new ones. This is a blessing and a curse. Blessing because they are effective at catching debris... curse because you must buy new filters.... I ordered 6 replacement filters because I've learned in the Koi game the filters will be harder to find way before the pump or unit fails. GREAT UNIT AT A GREAT PRICE

So far seems like a pretty good filtration system, but the handle broke and doesn’t seem to be sturdy.

This is a mini beast, I use it to offset my main filtration in my 7000 gallon Koi pond during the winter months when my big filter system is offline. Let me set everyone's mind at ease about the use of a UVC, MRs Dee had stated it would kill the Benificial Bacteria, well it will not, for a couple reasons the 1st and foremost is the vast majority(99.99%) of your Aquarium/Pond Benificial Bacteria resides in your filter Bio-media, followed by any substrate, Decor ect. Beneficial Bacteria Does not reside in the water column. The other reaaon is UVC bulbs are encased inside the pump unit preventing exposure to the inhabitants this is why you never ever use those individual bare UV bulbs, that is unless you have SPF 5 million for the fish She claims the Nitrite readings were from the UVC bulbs, that is farthest from the truth, she stated she had an Ammonia spike due to chickens crapping in her pond, apparently she is not familiar with how the Nitrogen cycle actually works, Ammonia comes from fish food and waste even "CHICKEN POOP" gets converted to Nitrites which then gets converted to Nitrates. Nitrates are then either converted to food by any live plants or are removed by performing a water change. Her spike was not caused by a UV bulb. It is also important to realize that there are 2 types of UV applications the 1st and widely use less $$ is a UVC the C meaning CLARIFIER for green water and that from a Bacterial Bloom, any Algae particles entering the bulb area are disrupted. Next this would be the only time Bacteria is destroyed when you have a cloudy tank from a Bacterial Bloom, which is from Aerobic Bacteria over populating the Nitrogen Cycle, Aerobic Bacteria multiplies at extreme rates compared to that of Anaerobic Bacteria, it is this unbalanced that causes cloudy water and in time will balance out. The other UV bulbs are UVS the S meaning Sterilizer this is the bulb that not only does what a UVC does but these bulbs will also help prevent any pathogens from taking up residence in the aquarium/pond and it is for this reaaon these bulbs need to be properly sized for the pump/filter turnover as a Sterilizer needs more contact (dwell) time with the passing water to be effective a undersized UV bulb is worthless, this is also why Sterilizers are more $$$ and are much larger than you will find in these all in one units. Most UV bulbs loose effectiveness over time so it us goid practice to replace them ever 6 to 12 months based on how often they are used, IMO Sterilizers should be replaced every 6 months to keep protection up

We built a large pond last year and had a real big problem with algae and keeping the water clean. We lost a lot of fish because what we had was not sufficient. And all the pumps I looked at were so expensive and you had to buy a separate filter. And I found this and was like there’s no way that cheap, they can’t be that good. my pond system is 1200 gallons and we bought the pump for $118. I think it said like 1600 gallons? I’m not kidding, my water was clear within 24 hours. And I had been spending a fortune on pond chemicals and my little insufficient pump and filters that were not working at all. It looked like a green mucky pond. You couldn’t even see the fish in there. This pump filter is amazing! It’s so easy to clean. And the water feature will let you know if the filters are clogged because it will start getting smaller. This is the best investment ever! It’s kept my pond so clean that we finally that we finally got Koi fish a week ago again. And we can actually see them now. Lol. And I haven’t had to put any chemicals in my pond since I got that pump filter. Is such an amazing price for how effective it yis. You won’t be sorry.

Worst pond pump I’ve owned and I’ve had a few. This one for whatever reason you have to clean every couple days to keep it pumping. Who wants to clean a pond pump every 3days? I’d buy another brand all together these things are crap! Vivosun should be ashamed of this product! Just awful

It worked great. 2 days from brown tea to crystal clear. Highly recommend this filter pump combo.

We clean it weekly and the filters inside keep shrinking in size. We've had it 2 months.

Clearing up my green water

Gorgeous pump! Love it! It has 3 types of filteration plus the UV light. It sits right in the bottom of the pond and has a great sturdy handle for lifting in and out. Its easy to pull apart for cleaning and is quite compact. I love that it gives the option of connnecting to a hose or just placing it in the bottom of the pond with fountain running. I noticed a difference in clarity after about 12 hrs. The only issue Im having is that I would like to order a replacement UV bulb to have on hand but cant seem to find where to order. Can you help?

Love this fountain! Our old pump did not perform well so we bought this one. We love that it has a large, flat bottom which makes it stable, large handle to pull the pump out, multiple stages of filters(easy to clean), UV light to cleanse the water and different spray options to choose from. Only drawback is that it’s heavy so my hubby has to pull it out for me

Works wonderful highly recommend! And my sweet pea always makes a mess and on no time its clean again.

Item was as described and seems quite powerful. Went together easily and made quite a difference in my pond within 24 hours. The handle is great so you can grab it out of the water easily for cleaning However after only a few weeks the UV no longer works which was part of the reason I purchased this one. That is the reason for the 3 star rating.