Sand or glass filter media, which is better?

[tstephens3956]

I am replacing the sand in my filter since the water clarity is not very good right now. I am weighing the options of putting sand in the filter again versus zeolite or ground glass. I get really mixed messages on the zeolite and the locals recommend against it and some folks are very negative on it. There is less objective information on glass but it does appear to last longer while being more expensive. I have found one objective article on the topic published by the CWC claiming that water clarity is better with glass while requiring less material.Here is a link to that study: http://www.cwc.org/glass/gl981rpt.pdf. Does anyone have an opinion on which filter media is best?

[TSH Tech]

Glass is the better choice, then regular pool sand. Occasionally, pool sand will get gunked up affecting water clarity. Usually a good sand filter cleaner that you soak the sand overnight gives your pool sand a nice cleaning.

Zeolite - Zeo Sand - ZeoBrite

If I can give you fair warning about Zeo sand media, please take heed. I'm giving you over 5 years experience and a few lost clients in my business regarding any of the "ZEO" type sands, as well as my own personal laboratory experiment to discover why this media fails so badly :

DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES CONSIDER ZEO SAND FOR YOUR POOL FILTER


It is a lame-duck product. Please go sand, glass or deep clean your existing sand.

[tstephens3956]

Thanks, that is good advice. I have found three brands of glass filter media: FilterGlass, ECOsmarte glass pack, and VitroClean available in the USA. There is also Viron Glass Filter media but I can not find that in the USA. Does anyone know how these products compare? Is one better than the other?

[tstephens3956]

I decided on going with ECOsmarte Glass Pack because I could purchase it for $40/50 lb bag including shipping and its specifications were as good as any alternative. Surprisingly, this is almost the same price for swimming pool sand from Amazon.com. If it is true that glass filter media lasts three times longer, than you save quite a bit both on the media and the cost/effort of replacing it.

So the question becomes, do I need to cover the laterals with pea gravel? I have read this recommendation in some pool forum. If so, where is the best source of swimming pool filter grade pea gravel?

[TSH Tech]

Pea Gravel -

It's more of a filter filler than anything, allowing you to buy less bags of sand or glass. The other part of pea gravel is that first initial pouring of sand/glass into the filter, the pea gravel acts as a buffer so a rapid pour does not crush the laterals. Ultimately, the finer texture of sand or glass will settle past the pea gravel down to the laterals.
My only gripe with pea gravel ,if it's the dirty type for concrete or landscaping, sometimes that backwash rinse is not enough, and will not clean all the ultra-fine silt off the rocks and that fine silt gets into the pool and ohhh my gosh, it creates a cloudy pool nightmare that will take a while to settle to the bottom and vacuumed out to 'waste'. For me, it only took 1 time to learn about the misadventures of pea gravel. Never again.

My method is simple, I skip the pea gravel, add water into the new filter about 1/4 of the way filled. Then S-L-O-W-L-Y pour the sand/glass into the tank, as to not crush the laterals. Then after all the bags are in, move to the backwash cycle to remove and rinse away any fine silts that come in sand/glass packing.

[tstephens3956]

Great advice. I presume that it is hard to find a source of clean pea gravel. I have been having that difficulty.

[vitroclean]

Vitroclean is mostly available on the West Coast, Texas and the Southeast. Where are you located?

[Michele]

Can you use Vitroclean in a filter that only requires 150 pounds of sand?

[Poonamdpi]

Hello,

According to me, glass filter media is better as compared to sand filter media. It not only provides you superior filtering for better water clarity but it is last longer. You can clean glass filter media less frequently. It saves water and chemical costs. It is environmental friendliness.

[Teapot]

I know you can now buy the best glass filter media in the USA. The only one you should consider using is Activate from Dryden Aqua (manufacturers) look on youtube for US distributors.
Why is Activate so much better? All of the other glass is simply crushed or sometimes glass spheres. I have worked with some that gave me little tiny cuts from the fine shards, these were always between my fingers where the skin is thinner but its never happened with Activate.
More important than that is the Activate glass media is treated in a special way to activate the surface to attract particles (adsorb) which are then washed away with the backwash. The surface of the activated glass will not support bacteria so it is self sterilising. The problem with sand and other non activated glass is that it will support bacterial growth and that leads to clumping and channeling that allows a path for unfiltered water to pass through the filter back into the pool.
Activate is used by Scottish Water in the sewage treatment plant, after 10 years the media was removed and examined and the surface was completely clear of bacterial growth, one tough test we will never need to go through!
It's not just what goes into the filter that counts but what comes out when you backwash it. Activate washes cleaner so less buildup of gunk in the filter.
My only comment is the pool industry tends to try and rush filtration, if you slow it down with a variable speed pump you'll get much better results.
Read about one test carried out by a French laboratory on glass media.
https://www.drydenaqua.com/files/pools/ ... _Print.pdf

[Oretha Balch]

I am replacing the sand in my filter since the water clarity is not very good right now. I am weighing the options of putting sand in the filter again versus zeolite or ground glass. I get really mixed messages on the zeolite and the locals recommend against it and some folks are very negative on it. There is less objective information on glass but it does appear to last longer while being more expensive. I have found one objective article on the topic published by the CWC claiming that water clarity is better with glass while requiring less material.Here is a link to that study: http://www.cwc.org/glass/gl981rpt.pdf. Does anyone have an opinion on which filter media is best?

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[Teapot]

Oretha, you are just advertising. Please f#?k off and die!