It can be a worrying thing to suddenly see sand or glass media at the bottom of your pool. The most likely cause of the problem is that there is a break in either the laterals or stand pipe of your sand filter.
Sand can sometimes be confused with dead algae, so before you call out a professional, take your pool brush and brush the sandy area. If the sand becomes a hazy cloud in the pool, this is algae and will simply need vacuuming up. Nothing to worry about. If the sand stays near the bottom and doesn’t create a cloud then the cause is almost certainly a problem with your sand filter.
How Sand gets into your pool.
Looking inside of your sand filter you will see a long pipe in the centre of the filter and a star of pipes which we call laterals. If sand is getting into your pool the likelihood is that one or more of the laterals have become detached or broken which will therefore need replacing. If your sand filter is old this maybe a very good time to replace the filter altogether as multiple failures of laterals could end up being more expensive than if you simply replaced the filter. Your pool company (hopefully us!) will take you through the various options available.
How to remove the sand in your pool.
Once the problem has been rectified the next step will be to remove the sand from your pool. To do this you will need your pool vacuum. The vacuum procedure is much the same as a regular clean however instead of vacuuming on “filtration” you will need to turn your multi-port valve to Waste. Please note that this will eject all the water you are vacuuming (and the sand) out of your backwash. You are likely to be using a fair amount of water here so be aware of this if you are using a soak away or backwashing to a open piece of ground. It is also worth popping your garden hose in the pool as you will want to top up the water that is lost.
Simply vacuum up the sand that is on your pool floor. Try to work as quickly as possible so you do not loose too much water. A handy tip you can do is to use your pool brush before you start vacuuming to brush the sand into one spot in the pool. In some cases, this may be difficult to do but worth trying.
Once you have removed all the sand in the pool. Turn off the pump, return your multi-port valve to filtration and you can run your pump as normal.
