Is it necessary to use green sand filters in your pool?
This question can be quickly addressed with another question. Do you live in a hard or soft water area? If the answer to this question is soft water, then the need for a green sand filter is not as important as it would be in a hard water area. The reason for this is the chemical composition of the water supply in your area.
Supplies vary depending on the types of rock or substrate that water flows through en route to your property. Sometimes local water treatment plants use industrial-size green sand filters to remove harmful metals from water before they get anywhere near your home, but that’s not always the case.
If the mineral content of the water is too strong with suspended metals such as iron, sulfur and hydrogen, it can affect not only the color of the water, but also the smell and taste. Now you can see how this problem can be exacerbated by additional water usage, for example filling an outdoor pool.
In this situation, a kind of green sand filter can improve the quality and purity of drinking water, and in combination with a general sand filter, it can clean and maintain the pool water, so that the pool has water clear and odorless for swimming.
Drinking water that is high in iron often turns a reddish-brown color and can be very unappetizing to drink, other than taste. If you have high sulfur levels, you will also suffer from that rotten egg smell.
In a swimming pool environment, excess sulfur in the water can cause skin irritation, so removing all of the described contaminants has a double benefit.
A green sand filter uses special manganese sand to remove metals, this sand incorporates glauconite which actually removes manganese and other metals. A natural sand in the ocean, this filter media is bluish in color and helps trap metals suspended within the sand, giving you the opportunity to remove waste materials during the cleaning process.
With this in mind, are there any downsides to using a green sand type filter?
Only two come to mind, but these are not cause for concern.
Filters can be quite expensive and you can easily spend over $1000 on some models, but others can be purchased for a more modest price.
Like any type of filter, eventually the filter media will become too saturated with contaminants and the sand will need to be replaced, but the same rules apply to general sand filters as well.
To extend the life of the sand you can apply potassium permanganate to the media, this will improve the efficiency of the sand filtration process and save you money in the long run. This can be especially effective when large amounts of water are filtered on a regular basis, for example if you have a large outdoor pool.
By keeping the acidity level in the pool at a constant pH of 6-8.5, this will also create the working environment for the filter to function at optimal levels.
In summary, a green sand filter really should be an essential purchase and addition to the standard filter, especially if you live in a hard water area and maintain a large pool.