Turning a old water softener into a sand filter Q?

[Salt-Man]

I have a old dual tank kinetico water softener that I dumped the old media out of because it was disgustingly dirty and replaced it with pea gravel, activated charcoal and play sand, I'm wondering if anyone here knows why or why not could I run the softener head just as it is for the softener, I just turned it into a filter, why wouldn't it still work as it should and back flush? Thoughts ?

 

[Stephen Noble]

We use a water softener and I can say 'repurposing' is a creative way to filter your water! Assuming you have a pump that can produce 60 or so PSI, I can't think of why it wouldn't work. Not sure I would use any activated carbon. I might use a prefilter to reduce the amount of large debris. The question is how often you need to 'regenerate' the filter and that will be a trial and error thing. One other thought is during backflushing, how will you keep the sand from being discharged? Please let us know how this project goes.

 

[Salt-Man]

We use a water softener and I can say 'repurposing' is a creative way to filter your water! Assuming you have a pump that can produce 60 or so PSI, I can't think of why it wouldn't work. Not sure I would use any activated carbon. I might use a prefilter to reduce the amount of large debris. The question is how often you need to 'regenerate' the filter and that will be a trial and error thing. One other thought is during backflushing, how will you keep the sand from being discharged? Please let us know how this project goes.

Im actually going to use this on my well water but when I googled info on doing it this forum kept coming up so I figured it was worth asking, so the system will go " Pump - cartridge filter- chlorine tablet tank I made- holding/pressure tank- cartridge filter- this sand filter I just made - cartridge filter- house
I have very bad well water some salt, iron bacteria, its basically the Indian river water here in FL, the well was drilled then the county dug a ditch to the river, eventually I'll move the well. We don't drink or cook with it but we shower and wash clothes in it so im trying to get it as perfect as I can

 

[Salt-Man]

Im actually going to use this on my well water but when I googled info on doing it this forum kept coming up so I figured it was worth asking, so the system will go " Pump - cartridge filter- chlorine tablet tank I made- holding/pressure tank- cartridge filter- this sand filter I just made - cartridge filter- house
I have very bad well water some salt, iron bacteria, its basically the Indian river water here in FL, the well was drilled then the county dug a ditch to the river, eventually I'll move the well. We don't drink or cook with it but we shower and wash clothes in it so im trying to get it as perfect as I can

Oh and I put a layer of pea stone on top, hopefully that keeps from flushing the sand out, trial and error like you said

 

[Stephen Noble]

Just checking, this is for a fish pond right? If you are using well water, why the chlorine tank? Unless, you are intending to disinfect the water. Whew. But how will you dechlorinate the water? And, if you are pumping from a well, why not skip the filter and just trickle freshwater into your pond 24/7 and have some sort of overflow in the pond that sends the dirty water into your garden? I too live in Florida and our well water (at least in my area) is not suitable for fish. So to understand, you are going to pump well water first into a cartridge (sand/debris) filter then on to a pressure tank...so far so good, then into your repurposed Kinetico then into another cartridge filter then into your pond? Oh I forgot, welcome to the forum!

 

[GBBUDD]

ok i'm a bit lost is this just a filter redesign for a well or is this for a pond?.. If it's heading for a pond sand is a fantastic filter but too much so while it works very well the duration in which it will work before it needs cleaning or back flushing in prohibitive. look at a pool there is NOTHING in a pool no life and if so much as a feather or half a leaf falls in it can be pointed out immediately. This is not a pond and pond is loaded with life, even death is life in a pond. I HAVE RECENTLY started using a bead filter and the concentration of Brown solids it is pulling out is amazing. It literaly takes no more than 5 minutes to back flush the filter with minimal water loss. but that loss i consider a minimal water change

 

[j.w]

@Salt-Man