Choosing The Best Pool Filter Media 

A pool filter media will accomplish what it is designed to do but you must choose the right media type for the job in question. There are certain factors that you must take into consideration when making your filter choices.

These factors include:

• Available space for the swimming pool filters.
• Required maintenance to be carried out on your pool filter.
• The budget that you must spend on your swimming pool filters.

When designing a swimming pool or spa filtration system, an engineer must make sure that the filter or filters meet the required needs of his client.

The reason for this is that the type of pool filter media found in the pool filters will determine the size of the suspended particles to be trapped.

Types Of Swimming Pool Filter Media

 There is an elite group of filter media that are available. Calculating your filtration needs will determine the best swimming pool filter for the job. Therefore, recommending the right media is crucial to achieving that desired clear water.

Media that are extensively used in the swimming pool and spa business are as follows:

• Sand filter media. This type of filter media is the oldest of them all. It is made from fine high grade silica sand. It is also referred to as high-rate-sand. The filtration media of a sand filter is normally set in three stages. What do I mean by that? Well inside the swimming pool filter there are three diverse types of media. First, there is a layer of gravel at the bottom. Secondly a coarser grain of sand is then placed on top of the gravel, followed by a layer of the fine silica sand. This combination is called rapid-rate-sand by swimming pool design engineers. Rapid-rate-sand filters are not a commonly used application anymore. The high-rate sand filters are normally a better choice because the sand filter media used is much smaller and it is of a higher grade. This media has a longer life. It can last anywhere from 5 to 15 years before it must be replaced.
• Diatomaceous earth. This type of pool filter media is also referred to as D.E. in the world of swimming pool and spa filtration. This filter media can remove the smallest suspended particles from your pool or spa water. It removes particles in the range of 3 to 6 microns.

Diatomaceous earth filter media uses a special material made for water filtration.

This material (D.E. powder) is made from tiny, fossilized skeletons of small sea plankton otherwise known as diatoms.

This D.E. powder is used to coat a grid or septum device that makes up the filtration media of your swimming pool filters. The powder is held against the grid or septum by the force of the water moving through your pool filters.

Still for the D.E powder to properly coat the grid, a special cloth like material is used to cover the grid before the diatomaceous earth powder is added. After the powder is added to the filter, it forms a paste like substance over the cloth material.

This paste-like substance is the water filtering media for your pool filters. This type of pool filter media is considered a disposable one because it must be replaced after your filters are cleaned.

Proper filtration of your pool or spa water involves forcing the water through a filter or a set of filters at extremely high pressure. By doing this, the suspended particles in your swimming pool water are trapped by the pool filter media.

A pool filter media defines the quality of your pool filter.

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