# Forum Home Renovation Pools, Spa & Water Features  Pool equipment decision

## Markg71

G'day all
I am having a hell of a time deciding on equipment for a new pool we are building. It's going to be around 115-130 thousand litres being 14m x 8m by 1.2m to 2m deep in a free form shape 
Being that large, I am concerned about water wastage and daily turnover, also about power usage in running and maintaining the pool. 
I live out in jimboomba in a semi rural development on an acre with trickle feed and HSTP sewage system 
So here's the questions
the two largest most economical pumps I can find are the Hayward Tristar VS and Astral P600 Viron.
1. Firstly, knowing the size of the pool, would either of these do the job and which one (or another setup) would you recommend.
2. Being on trickle feed and HSTP, and council requiring a soak well for waste water, would it be better to go with a cartridge filter over sand. I have in mind the Astral Viron CL600 or Hayward swim clear 5030 quad cartridge filters. I would love DE but just can't come at the water wastage with these units. 
I plan to have a vx salt chlorinator as well with ph balance to be done by hand 
Finally, I thought long and hard about robot cleaners but I can't find any decent reviews on them
For those in the know, are these cleaner systems reliable and efficient, lots of bragging about what they can do but are they really that good and which one is best value vs performance vs reliability ? 
I have had a couple of guys come out and the first guy suggested a Viron P320 filter and a single ZX cartridge filter which seems a bit small and constrictive in terms of flow rate and turnover capacity vs economy. I haven't heard back from the second yet. 
All in all any advice is welcome being my first pool and all :Smilie:   
i was also thinking about changing the pool finish from standard pebble to glass pebble. Does anyone have an opinion and good/bad experience with either product ?

----------


## Farmer Geoff

You might get some ideas from our setup. We have a 60,000 litre fibreglass pool in rural area where rain water is scarce and dam water is poor quality. We have salt chlorinator and cartridge filter but to save on water and pump running costs we installed a 4,000 plastic settling tank slightly uphill from the pool. We put dam water in that, toss in chlorine, wait 12 hrs, floc, wait 12 hrs, drain into pool from outlet 300mm up from bottom of settling tank. Rather than run filter pump for long periods, we shock pool with chlorine every fortnight, floc then vacuum settled stuff into the settling tank where it settles for a day. (We have a 3 way tap between pump and filter with pipe off to the settling tank. When we gravity drain back to pool, water goes through cartridge filter.) 
Pool is covered when not in use - saves heaps of water, chlorine and heat. Filter pump and chlorinator are running when pool in use but usually just with filter sock in skimmer box and cartridge removed from filter to save power and increase flow through chlorinator. We have 3 way tap on filter exit line with T off to ground based solar heating mat. With galvanised metal roof, solar matting up there was a headache. Corrosion from tiny leaks, bigger pump running costs and harder maintenance on roof than on ground. We don't maintain pool through winter - just cover and forget - only takes a few days to get it cranked up and clear in spring. Our system might not pass best practice guidelines or suggestions from pool equipment suppliers with eyes on our $$ but water is clear and never any health problems reported. We use phosphate starver after each big addition of treated dam water.  Cheers

----------


## Uncle Bob

Geoff, your setup sounds fantastic. 
I'll just wade into the filter medium debate (pun intended  :Smilie:  ), 
Apparently there's a glass type of sand which backwashes in no time, seconds compared to minutes.
Also you can backwash into settling tanks to reclaim the water. 
I've gone from cartridges to sand and now to zeolite and are as happy as a dog with two tails. 
Cheers Bob

----------


## Markg71

Geoff
your setup sounds awesome. I thought about a spare tank hooked into the rainwater but didn't think for a second about using it the way you do.I am also really interested in your solar ground mat, can you tell me a bit more about that as I really wanted to do some heating but couldn't stretch the budget to full rooftop solar or a heat pump. 
And your comments about the pool blanket are spot on, I will have one of these as well with a roller semi hidden on the front of the deck that will also do double duty as a bench seat. 
Interestingly, I commented to one of the pool builders I wanted a blanket, and he looked at me and said, why would you want to hide your pool....I didn't even bother responding

----------


## pauljygrant

Just some observations based on our experience of a recently installed pool that may be of use to you.
Our pool blanket, which was mandatory in SA, has been great at keeping dirt out of the pool, reducing evaporation and helping to capture heat.  Agree that the look of the pool is compromised but saving on heating costs is significant. 
We have glass medium in the filter and back washing is fairly simple and quick.  We also have a Waterco cyclonic Pre-filter on top of the pump that captures most of the dirt and dust and is easy to empty without wasting much water.
We also opted for a mineral pool over salt and in addition to being nicer to swim in means that the backwash waste water is safe for the garden so no need to wash to a drain or soak away.
Paul

----------

