2 inch slurry pump bag

Thinking of making a sand filter for a pool?? Has anyone done this?

Original Poster

Hi all, I bought the kids a 18ft pool the other day and after reading some reviews have come to the conclusion that the filter system (cartage) that comes with it is not up to the job. So i can spend £200-£300 on a shop bought filter or i can try and make my own. I work on large scale sand filters at work so i have some experience using them, not making them though. I have looked around and think the best thing to make it out of will be an old Calor gas tank i have in the yard as i can weld the fixings to it (should be less lightly to leak). Has anyone made a filter before? any tips before i do my usual and charge in..

Response 1

Made a few for aqua_culture industry a few year ago, as you will know, fairly simple device to knock up. Stuff I knocked up was always 316L SS, which is the way I,d go if you looking at long term use. Steel may compound water quality as the inners start to corrode, maybe an idea to have finished filter galvanised? Let me know how you get on, thinking of a pool for here...........

Response 2

Commercially built ones use a plastic vase for the reasons above, along with plastic components inside. The only real pain Ive had with them is getting the neck to reseal after taking them apart for seasonal cleaning, to that end you dont want to weld on the fittings as you have to take all the sand out and scrub the innards, which is why the vase's have large necks. Generally once every year/two max the neck seals on the commercial stuff need replacing, so its handy to have a brand of seal that you know you can get your hands on again if you do make one up, or buy a few spare seals when you settle on what you want to use. Skimmer basket socks extend the time between cleaning too. Dont forget your top valve has to have a backwash position, so you can reverse the flow of water through it and direct the outlet into a drain for a few minutes once a week or so to clean it out. Its suprising how dirty the backwash water comes out the end of the drain hose and you leave it to run till the water comes out clear. Thats what the 3 ports on the top of the vase valve are about. Unless it was to try and filter a lagoon or something huge, I think id just use one of the dinky ebay plastic ones myself. And it comes with a pump too. Depends on the size of pool/water capacity which pump/filter setup you buy of course. A massively overspec'd one will be able to run a eyeball shower/fountain if you have a eyeball on the pool. Another thought, why not fit the cartridge system to the pool and give it a go? the only thing about them I dont like is throwing hte cartridge away at regular intervals, its the chemicals and how well you keep the ph levels right etc which stops the water turning green and murky really. I had a friend who just put chemicals in his above ground pool and never ran a pump, and he got a whole summer out of one fill of water...

Response 3

Could you just use a filter bag (Google), pump your water through it and bung it in the washing machine once a week?

Response 4

The amount of stuff you get going through an 18ft pool is next to nothing. All it's doing is skimming the surface, nothing on the bottom gets sucked in as they dont have a sump. Be better buying yourself a net and some chemicals.

Response 5

I have had a 20ft figure of eight swimming pool now for 12 years with a sand filter running for the last 8years. Be careful using a metal cylinder for the filter body as the chlorine will corrode it faster than normal and the rust will stain the pool liner brown. (copper turns the water green and too much chlorine and a lot of use turns blond hair green) Cartridge filters are not fine enough to remove algae and eventually chlorine bleaches it and the water turns milky white. E-bay is the best place to get a 2nd hand filter my next door neighbour got a good one for £90 2 months ago, i fitted it and its working fine. Another good tip is to throw a hand full of flock into the filter intake, it tightens up the sand so it scrubs the water better. Hope this helps

Response 6

This is the crowd I did work for yonks ago on an ad-hoc basis, AFM stuff looks interesting.