In view of the poor and unstable removal effects of nitrogen and phosphorus by traditional biological retention facilities, a research has thus been carried out on the performance of biological retention columns packed with improved fillers. Four biological retention columns have been constructed, one being a control biological retention column (Z1), and three equipped with different modified packing layers (maifanite, zeolite, vermiculite) biological retention columns, with a 35 cm submerged area set up in the column, followed by a sampling and analysis of the effluent of the retention columns. The results show that the removal rates of TP, COD, NH4+-N, and NO3--N by the four biological retention columns are 76.7%~85.6%、87.78%~94.19%、76.7%~87.67% and 78%~88%, respectively. Compared with Z1, it is obvious that Z2, Z3 and Z4 are characterized with improved removal effects of different pollutants, among which Z4 (vermiculite filler) has the best performance.