Sand filter media

Sand filters should be more accurately called media filters. The range of sand filter media available is vast, with many different media’s available to suit various applications.

Sand filter media such as zeolite, sand, crushed glass, AFM, Glass Pearls, activated carbon, anthracite, various resins for removal of heavy metals and hardness from water, specialty sinking plastic media and many other medias can be used in sand filters.

To see our range of sand filter please visit

Sand

Filter sand is naturally occurring, graded and washed silicon dioxide. It is an inert media, hard, durable and has a long service life.

In our experience, sand is suited to only very lightly loaded applications, as the filter bed is prone to caking and blocking, resulting in channeling and the filter bed not be able to be backwashed effectively.

It also has limited depth filtration, minimising its ability to hold more waste, resulting in more frequent backwashing.

Available in 0.6-1.2mm size for filtration in sand filters.

Glass Pearls

One of the newest filter media on the market, Glass Pearls offer a filtration level comparable to DE. Made from pure glass, the Glass Pearls filter out anything larger than 3 microns, giving you superior quality water.

Pros:
Small effective size of only 0.6mm to 0.8mm. Its narrow particle size range allows very effective in-depth filtration

Spherical shape of beads means less friction levels inside the filter and therefore requiring only 20% of the water you would use to backwash a sand filter

Chemically inert, safe, smooth and high purity

Cons:

Still requires backwashing occasionally

More costly than sand and Zeoplus

Ecopure Crushed Glass

Ecopure crushed glass sand filter media is manufactured from recycled glass. Its is environmentally friendly and a viable alternative to sand and offers finer filtration when compared to sand.

Zeoplus Zeolite

Zeoplus is an incredibly hard zeolite (a naturally occurring mineral).

It can remove ammonia from both fresh and saltwater, as well as some other dissolved pollutants as well.

Zeolite offers great depth filtration and is a viable option for replacing sand in sand filters for both removal rate and dirt holding capacity.

Zeoplus can filter approximately 90% of the particles in water down to 10 microns per pass.

Activated carbon

Pure Aquatics offers two types of activated carbon.

For Chlorine and ozone removal we recommend our Coconut carbon (available in a range of seive sizes) as the pore distribution is more effective for these types of ions (almost exclusively microporous).

For organics and tannin/colour removal we recommend a coal based activated carbon that has both micropore and mesopore structured pores.