Fliter Sand, HTS vs. Zeobrite??

[Poconos]

There is a sticky at the top of this forum about adding DE to a sand filter. Only thing Carl forgot to mention you should mix the DE in a couple gallons of water then pour the mix in the skimmer slowly. With a 300# filter you can probably start at 1/2 cup. Also, don't inhale the dust. On the sand, mine is almost 13 years old and the only thing I should do is add some. I'm low and I know it and probably can throw another bag or so in the filter which I'll do next spring. You do lose a little each time you backwash. Not much but after 13 years it adds up. Also, if you add DE and are vacuuming dust or crud from the bottom of the pool, watch the pressure. Tends to climb and the flow may drop fast.
Enjoy the pool.
Al

[CarlD]

My hypothesis is that sand in your filter is millions of years old and therefore should last millions of years more!

All you have to do is maintain your pool properly for the next million years (which I'm working on--8 down, 999,992 to go! )

[pbotz2000]

just my 3 cents
i switched over my hayward sand filter last year to100lbs of zeobrite, hoping for spectular results. Reading it was used in aquariums and so on i sprung for it hoping to take some of the pain out of my pool being dirty and taking too long to clear up.(before forums reopened, now ive learned much more).
I was also more interested in the claims of less backwashing since i was doing it 2 or 3 times a week, in the begining since my pool was full of algae at opening.

The results were far from spectular. It was the 2nd year of having my house with the pool so i dont really know too much on how the filter ran with regular sand. The zeobrite did not clear the water up or filter out the water any better than how i remenbered the sand. I also opened this year to a green pool and once again, no spectular clearing of the water, other than me pumping up the Fc and applying popp over several weeks.
I would not recommenend the zeobrite, and wish i had gone with filter sand.

I backwash approx every 2 weeks, currently its been 15 days since i backwashed, not sure if thats good/bad or avg for sand filters.
I also always try to run skimmer socks.

[Digger]

Thanks everyone for info. Janet, I will keep that in mind. I know the sales lady online yesterday was telling me about how Zeobrite worked, and it sounded convincing, but was not sure? I wanted to hear from others on here. I will take all of this into consideration. I was wondering on my tank it says to put I think half way full of water, than add sand. do you do that with the Zeo? Does it swell up beings you use half as much as sand, or doesn't that matter as far as cleaning. I am trying to grasp the concept and how it works?

Carl, I don't think I want to be around a million years! LOL, but that is good to know! Smile! Still am thrilled to death that we don't have to change the stinking stuff EVERY year, like we had to the last 2 years with Baq!!

So, I guess forget about being so cheap and pricing sand and just go and get it if that is what I am going to use, because it lasts really long once you put it in. The reason I am pricing is because this is the third year in a row to replace it. Oh well!

[CarlD]

I don't know if I want to live a million years with my pool and filter--but I sure would like the opportunity to choose!

Seriously, I have found that using DE in my sand filter, along with skimmer socks in my...skimmer, a solar cover when the pool is not in use, and, finally, the water-polishing effect of a robotic cleaner leaves my water absolutely sparkling. I don't know if Zeo would do any better. I've not seen a Zeo pool.