Just bought play sand, wtfs pool filter sand?

Question

whats pool filter sand i heard of? do you not have to clean it cause i just cleaned my play sand for liek a week and now im hearing you dont have to for pool filter sand...? where do you get that sand also?

Answer 1

Pool filter sand is meant to be poured in to the suction end of the filter systems in pools and gets trapped in the filter system, thereby filtering the water that flows through the sand.  After a specified period of time the owner of the house or a maintenance crew back flushes the filter system and thereby removes the old sand.  So the sand is thrown away.  Note that the amount of sand that a pool uses to filter the water is very small in comparison to the volume needed to fill a play area.  New sand is then added to start the whole process over again.

You probably don't want to use that sand for a play area, it's very expensive and you still have to clean it.   You would need to clean ANY sand used for a play area.  Or you can throw that away and start again.

Answer 2

Jeff is wrong, what Jeff is referring to is DE. Pool filter sand is vary uniform in size and vary clean. The average sand filter uses about 500lbs of sand and its not simply flushed away. I don't know if you can buy the sand at your local pool store but if you can it should come in 50lbs bags and cost under $5. I get it from a commercial supplier and use it in all my tanks.