Fiber Clear or Zeofiber

[pwrstrk]

Hello everyone.

Is anybody useing these products in replace of regurlar DE? I'll be a new pool owner in the spring and just looking for some feedback on these products. Pro's and con's.


Thanks in advance

 

[BoDarville]

pwrstrk:

I have used both Fiber Clear and ZeoFiber as a supplement to my sand filter. Both are essentially the same product (cellulose fiber derived from trees). I use it only during the main swim season to provide that extra bit of water clarity that is most apparent under the lights. It is much safer to handle than DE since Fiber Clear / ZeoFiber do not contain the harmful-to-breathe silica that DE has. In addition, cellulose fiber is biodegradable. I have had no side effects with either product. Backwashing is the same as before, just have to re-dose after a backwash.

When first using either product, keep a close eye on your filter pressure gauge since it may filter out more stuff that was previously passing through the filter. After a backwash cycle or two, the pressure should stabilize to more normal levels.

Although I keep my pool operational year-round, I do not use Fiber Clear / ZeoFiber once the swimming season is over to save $ on product and because I rarely have the lights on during the off-season plus I don't notice any difference in clarity during the day. It's when the lights are on that I notice a slight difference when using the product.

 

[revcoman]

I use Fiber Clear for my DE filter and love it!

I hated the dust exposure and mess with regular DE. Fiber Clear is dusty as well, but I don't have to worry about it being a carcinogen like DE.

It is expensive, though. At my local Leslies, they charge $20 for a 3lb bag of Fiber Clear.

I found an internet site that sells it in 25lb bags for $107, with free shipping! That comes out to appx $4.32/lb, compared to $6.66/lb at Leslies. Much more economical!

Water sure does sparkle with it! If you want the site I order from, PM me.

James

 

[Richard320]

I switched and I have had no problems. Here's a thread: the-claims-may-be-correct-t28130.html

I will say that it doesn't backwash out any better than DE in my experience. The last time, after backflushing for a minute or so, I shut everything down, opened the filter, and blasted the screens with a hose nozzle. No disassembly, just blasted them in place. Then I reassembled it and backflushed again until the water was clear. The beauty of it was that I was able to discharge it onto the lawn. No worries about whether it was legal to let DE into the storm drains, no white crust left behind, no trying to feed it to the sanitary sewer.

I will also caution that the old rule-of-thumb about 10 psi rise doesn't work well. I noticed things seemed to be slowing down, yet the pressure was only up from 16 to 22. In the future, when I hit 20, that's it.

 

[CraigMW]

I use this stuff and pick it up at my local Home Depot:

http://www.pooltime.com/mp/v/index.jsp? ... mt=default

Seems to work pretty well compared to DE. The amount needed is much less than DE and it appears to filter even finer particles than genuine DE. It seems to backwash okay for our needs, an issue that some have had concerns about. When I break down the filter to clean the grids, it seems to clean off just fine. So overall, it's a viable option as a DE replacement. You still don't want to breath this stuff though.