Zeosand?

[Mesamav]

I have an old sand filter and I have no idea how old the sand is. It's not filtering all that well in my opinion so I'd like to change the sand and I've read about "Zeosand" and others that filter much better than old school sand. Hence my questions.
After a little research on the web, it seems like there are 3 kinds of sand. Old school sand, Zeosand which is still natural sand but finer and then there is sand that isn't sand at all but glass and they say it filters down to 2 microns.
What kind of sand is available, how well does it filter, who carries it and what would you find folks recommend??????

 

[duraleigh]

Regular pool sand works perfectly well in millions of pools. It will in yours, too.

What symptoms do you see that indicates your filter is not working correctly?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I had a client with zeosand and frankly I didn't think it worked well at all. I would go old school if it were me.

I agree with Dave, tell us more about your issues - it may not be the sand itself but something else indirectly.

 

[Mesamav]

I don't really have any issues with my filter situation. It's working properly but I have a friend that has a DE filter and that seems to filter his water much better than my sand filter. From what I've researched, a sand filter gets particulates down to about 30 or 40 microns where a DE filter gets stuff down to 3 to 5 microns. They advertise that the zeosand and filterglass gets particulates down to 3 or 4 microns. I was just wondering if those claims are accurate and real world pool owners get those results and/or see any improvement.
My filter seems to work OK but I do notice that when I turn the light on at night, there are a lot of, what I call "floaties" in the water that the filter doesn't seem to get. It makes the water look slightly hazy at night with the light on.
I use a cup of so of DE if I want to make the water sparkling but it takes a few days and with a cup of DE, I have to backwash a LOT. Like once or twice a day.
I like the sand filter, I was just wondering if there was an alternative media to make it filter a little better.

 

[Richard320]

I don't really have any issues with my filter situation. It's working properly but I have a friend that has a DE filter and that seems to filter his water much better than my sand filter. From what I've researched, a sand filter gets particulates down to about 30 or 40 microns where a DE filter gets stuff down to 3 to 5 microns. They advertise that the zeosand and filterglass gets particulates down to 3 or 4 microns. I was just wondering if those claims are accurate and real world pool owners get those results and/or see any improvement.
My filter seems to work OK but I do notice that when I turn the light on at night, there are a lot of, what I call "floaties" in the water that the filter doesn't seem to get. It makes the water look slightly hazy at night with the light on.
I use a cup of so of DE if I want to make the water sparkling but it takes a few days and with a cup of DE, I have to backwash a LOT. Like once or twice a day.
I like the sand filter, I was just wondering if there was an alternative media to make it filter a little better.

Even with a DE filter I see floaters in the pool light.

If the DE is loading up in your sand filter, that means it's working. Once you finally get everything bigger than 4 microns out of the water it should go longer between flushes. Note that if you switch to some new miracle media, it will load up just as fast as the DE you've been adding.