Postby TSH Tech » Mon 03 Sep, 2012 02:24
Conclusion
It’s now September in the USA, winter will be setting in soon. I’ve been servicing Zero sand products for our remaining clients for over five years now and will wrap this subject up by entering my final opinion as pool industry tech. I’ve seen enough.
Short Answer: Don’t do it, just go regular filter sand and enjoy your pool.
Long Answer
I believe there were good intentions with Zeo sand. Originally, Zeo sand came from the live fish Aquarium industry and used for its ammonia scavenging filtering properties as well as fine water particulate filtering properties. I assume somewhere down the line, they thought this would be of benefit to the swimming pool industry and began plans to capture the pool market as well. What they did not understand, and it shows, is that unlike aquariums, swimming pools are an entirely different animal. Swimming pools have people that get into the pools and people get into the pools wearing greasy, oily suntan lotions, which eventually wash off and absolutely glop and heavily soil swimming pool filters of every type. Swimming pools often at times require chemical additives that are specifically designed to “trap” into the filter. Water clarifiers, liquid algaecides, mineral removers are designed to coagulate so they can be trapped. Trees, vegetation, shrubberies and other organic matter planted close to the pool by misguided landscape designers, deposit matter into the pool that clogs filters of every type. Analyzing all these dynamics of swimming pools, the evidence is clear they did not research pool usage, nor did they come up with a solution to clean Zeo media. If it was their intention to advise replacing Zeo sand, then they clearly do not know swimming pool owners. Unlike Aquarium people, who would gladly spend the money replacing Zeo sand for their children fish, swimming pool people on the other hand want work done for cheap, parts for free and any other special discount, but have no problem spending $24,000+ (USD) on a new boat, or $30K on a Europe trip. That’s just how it is.
In my opinion, every pool on a case by case basis must be qualified for Zeo sand media for pool owners that are absolutely sold on Zeo sand. The criteria range from usage, water hardness to the amount of yard landscaping that drops into the pool. Then there’s the gardener leaf blower factor. Eventually, what it comes down to is, you’re better off just going with regular sand unless you won the Zeo sand sweepstakes are getting the stuff for free.
The concept of having a sand filter with filtering properties of a D.E. filter is very attractive. I’ll be quite honest, I’m not at all fond of taking apart D.E. filters and cleaning them. They’re messy, they’re dirty, they soil my clothes with hose back-spray. Unless I look dressed like the Gortons fisherman, I’m going to get dirty. I would much rather move a backwash valve, adjust my tie in a James Bond fashion and be done with it. However, Zeo sand has a tremendous flaw. That flaw being, when those micro-fine jagged surfaces of the filtering media clog up, the water bypasses the Zeo sand and does not get filtered. The effective filtering of the media is gone. Regular backwashing will not clean it, resulting in pools that turn green no matter how many additives poured in(making matters worse inside the filter) frustrating techs and home owners who have not been told this media needs a special cleaning. Thus, the entire purpose of this forum thread. Zeo sand cleaners have been rolled out in recent years which have helped. Sometimes it takes three cleanings if the filter media is clogged badly. I would suggest this route if a pool owner already has Zeo sand installed and is in not that big of a hurry to replace it out with regular sand. Zeo cleaners are your only saving grace if for some reason, it is the intention to keep Zeo sand.
Officially, my company is permanently done with all Zeo sand products. I cannot recommend Zeo sand anymore due it’s unpredictable nature to turn a pool green on a whim in the summer swimming season. During this exciting adventure, in the very beginning, we lost four clients who grew impatient with cloudy and green pools. I speak for myself when I say that I don’t sweat loosing four clients, one I really hated(laughing), turned into a blessing in disguise and the rest, that’s just how the swimming pool business works in general. All of our existing clients we phased out of Zeo sand and changed back over to sand. Sand is cheap, we ate the cost to keep our clients. We now only have one client on Zeo sand, which is a complete freak of nature. This client’s pool is humming along just fine on the product.
I like the concept, but put into practice is a failure. Perhaps if I had an indoor pool, that was a show pool only, no swimmers, I might consider Zeo sand.
I’ll check back in this thread to answer any specific questions.
Eventually I found the answer and I hope this information helps all of you. It's not a bad product, it just needs maintenance that regular beach sand does not require.