Hello All...
I am looking for sound advice and after spending hours and hours looking at various vendors web sites I decided to check TFP...hoping someone can shed some light on the topic.
I live in a tropical paradise...but every place has its inconvenients.
The temperature is nice (high 80s) all year round and we have two seasons. Dry season and rain season. For half the year we've got plenty of water but the other half it can get quite scarce to a point where doing a backwash is a big no-no . IN fact with the heat and lack of rain it is sometimes a challenge to keep a pool above the skimmer line.
If you happen to need to do a backwash at this point you are kind of screwed because you have no water to bring the level back up. This kind of stinks because the dry season (summer) is when you need the pool the most.
So I came across DE filters and retention tanks that from what I am reading allow to send the backwash water back to the pool...Perfect! That's what I need...So i started looking and after dozens and dozens of different web sites all claiming to have the best I admit I am more confused than anything else.
It sounds too good to be true...and when it does it usually is because it is too good to be true. So where's the catch?
can you really send the backwash water back into the pool if you are using a retention tank?
Also I read that perlite seems to be a better medium than DE because it is easily backwashable...? So does not need to be changed (or topped off) at every backwash.
So I am looking hopefully for someone whom can give me the ugly, naked truth on DE filters, retention tanks and perlite instead of DE as a medium...
Does it make sense? Is it really possible to re-use the backwash water with a retention tank? Does it make sense to use perlite instead of DE...and if doing so will the retention tank work the same way? Is it really possible to backwash perlite medium?
I find the info on manufacturer sites is very basic at best and somewhat biaised ...vendors are even worst in terms of information, so I am not sure I can fully rely on any of them but I do have faith in TFP members...
Thanks for any input
Eric
I am looking for sound advice and after spending hours and hours looking at various vendors web sites I decided to check TFP...hoping someone can shed some light on the topic.
I live in a tropical paradise...but every place has its inconvenients.
The temperature is nice (high 80s) all year round and we have two seasons. Dry season and rain season. For half the year we've got plenty of water but the other half it can get quite scarce to a point where doing a backwash is a big no-no . IN fact with the heat and lack of rain it is sometimes a challenge to keep a pool above the skimmer line.
If you happen to need to do a backwash at this point you are kind of screwed because you have no water to bring the level back up. This kind of stinks because the dry season (summer) is when you need the pool the most.
So I came across DE filters and retention tanks that from what I am reading allow to send the backwash water back to the pool...Perfect! That's what I need...So i started looking and after dozens and dozens of different web sites all claiming to have the best I admit I am more confused than anything else.
It sounds too good to be true...and when it does it usually is because it is too good to be true. So where's the catch?
can you really send the backwash water back into the pool if you are using a retention tank?
Also I read that perlite seems to be a better medium than DE because it is easily backwashable...? So does not need to be changed (or topped off) at every backwash.
So I am looking hopefully for someone whom can give me the ugly, naked truth on DE filters, retention tanks and perlite instead of DE as a medium...
Does it make sense? Is it really possible to re-use the backwash water with a retention tank? Does it make sense to use perlite instead of DE...and if doing so will the retention tank work the same way? Is it really possible to backwash perlite medium?
I find the info on manufacturer sites is very basic at best and somewhat biaised ...vendors are even worst in terms of information, so I am not sure I can fully rely on any of them but I do have faith in TFP members...
Thanks for any input
Eric