New filter - can I reuse Zeolite from an older filter that had Mustard Algae?

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S

stube40

0
Feb 4, 2016
21
Western Australia
Hello TFP folks.

I have been fighting a bad case of Mustard Algae for a few months now. I managed to get mostly rid of it after a SLAM, but it never truly disappeared. As it turns out, a leak in my fibreglass sand filter was causing filtering issues and has finally caught up with me now so I have bought a new filter and multiport valve.

The thing is, I put about $150 worth of new Zeolite filter media in my filter about 6 months ago and I'd like to re-use it rather than replace it. However, I'm aware that mustard algae lives in the filter media and hence I'm not making my life any easier by reusing the filter media. Especially since the filter media has a slight red colouring to it that I don't remember when new, so I'm assuming it's visibility tainted by the algae (which is a light reddish brown in the bottom of my pool).

To cut a long story short, I'm wondering if I could treat the filter media in the new fibreglass container by filling up with water and a heavy dosage of liquid chlorine. Maybe leaving it for 48 hours and then connecting up the new filter and circulating for a few days. Maybe if the 'heavy dosage' was equal to the initial shock dosage of a SLAM treatment so as to not damage the pool equipment when i start circulating (after the initial dilution into the main pool of course, will be concentrated for a short period of time until that happens).

Or does high dosages of chlorine deteriorate the fibreglass filter shell? That would be the only disadvantage I could think of?

Thanks.
 
I'm aware that mustard algae lives in the filter media
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I hope you didn't learn that on TFP. Algae needs sunlight to live and there is no sunlight in your filter.

A properly chlorinated pool does not develop algae in the filter.

To answer your question, you can certainly reuse the filter media but your pool must be better chlorinated or the results will be the same as your old filter.

Or you could use sand which works just as well according to thousands on this forum.
 
I'm not sure where I got that information from about algae living in the filter - it was in a forum whilst I was researching the Mustard Algae. I'm sure it must have been another forum though, not TFP ;-)

That's interesting what you say about sand working just as well as Zeolite. I'm interested! I would like to learn more about that!
 
Sure. Not too much to learn, really. Sand filters (filled with sand) have been around forever and probably the most forgiving type of filter for your pool.

Zeolite and other alternative media have been around for a good while but the reports we see over ten years on the forum indicate they really don't seem to offer much advantage. Based on that info from literally thousands of users, I think I would use good quality sand in my sand filter.
 
Thanks for that. When you say 'good quality sand'. What kind of sand are we talking?

I did look at a few posts from TFP over the last day and most of them were comparing Zeolite to 'sand' without declaring what was meant by 'sand' - although on a few occassions it became clear that it was actually comparing Zeolite to special sand designed for sand filters (I've heard it referred to as Silica Sand).

Is that what you are referring to, or are we talking some kind of sand you can get from a Hardware store or builder's merchant? When I removed the 'Silica Sand' from my filter it was not like any sand you would find on a beach or in a hardware store. It was more like a larger grain, like a small crystal. Normal sand that you might find in a beach, in a childrens playground or mix with cement, is much finer and has much small grain size.

As you can tell I'm fairly stupid when it comes to this stuff - maybe you could be so kind as to enlighten me!

Thanks alot!
 
It seems the over riding requirement of pool filter sand is that it be uniform in size and graded to a #20. I am just not sure exactly what #20 size is but if the sand is not uniform, it can blow back into the pool.

Any pool store should carry it and, while costing more than just plain old sand (but less than Zeo), it's a one-time expense and it's what you need.
 
duraleigh said:
Sure. Not too much to learn, really. Sand filters (filled with sand) have been around forever and probably the most forgiving type of filter for your pool.

Zeolite and other alternative media have been around for a good while but the reports we see over ten years on the forum indicate they really don't seem to offer much advantage. Based on that info from literally thousands of users, I think I would use good quality sand in my sand filter.
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Well ... zeolite is much easier on vehicle suspensions, that’s about it.
 
# 20 graded sand will be sand grains that are between 0.0394-0.0331 inches in size. That's between 1.00-0.841 mm for you metric folks.


All the sand in that bag of pool sand should be that size.

The sand that you pulled out of your filter was filter sand by how you described it. That's the type of sand you are looking to buy. It should cost about $10-15 for 50lbs.
 
I am not contradicting CJadamec by any means but my curiosity got the best of me and I found this on a website about sand filters.
Pool sand is usually a size called #20, which means the individual grains included are between 45 and 55 millimeters in diameter.
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I have no idea which size range is correct but the important takeaway is that the sand is uniform in size.


 
I looked up the sieve for a #20 sieve If pool filter sand is #20 sand that means it will pass thru a #25 sieve but not a #20 sieve.

This handy chart here shows you the size range of the sand grains that should be caught by a #20 sieve.

45-55 millimeters is about 2 inches in size. That has to be a typo.
 

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