Why Is There Sand in Your Pool? (And How to Remove It)

Sand can be an enjoyable part of swimming… at the beach, or the cottage, but not in your pool. So, how did it get at the bottom of your pool and how do you remove it?

Check that it’s sand

If you have a sand filter, then that’s most likely the source of the sand in your pool. But if you don’t, or if the sand looks a little strange you might be dealing with yellow algae. To confirm your algae suspicions try brushing it up. You’ll know its algae if it begins forming a cloud.

Is the sand from your filter?

Sometimes when a pool is located near sand then the sand might be getting into your pool from an outside source. A wide dispersal of sand usually indicates an outside source. On the other hand, sand from your filter will leave streaks along the pool floor around the return line.

It’s the filter

If you believe the sand is from your filter, then the most likely problem with your sand filter is a cracked lateral. Laterals are tubes at the bottom of your filter (you can see them here).

Water filters through the sand and is collected by these laterals and then shot through standing pipe and back into your pool. It only takes one cracked lateral for this to happen.

To check if you have a cracked lateral you’re going to have to remove all the sand from your filter. Should you find all your laterals intact, then the problem may be a crack in your standing pipe (though the standing pipe is thicker so it’s rarely the culprit).

The fix

This step is time consuming, it’s frustrating, but, thankfully, it isn’t that complicated. You need to remove the sand from your filter (which you have already done), then take the filter apart and replace any parts that are damaged. Replacing the various parts is a similar process that you go through when you change the sand on your filter.

Removing the sand

Once your filter is operational again you will want to get rid of that sand in your pool as soon as possible because you’re going to lose a lot of water in the process of removing the sand from the bottom of your pool. In fact, with this in mind the first thing you may want to do is overfill your pool.

The next step will be to vacuum the sand up, but first we recommend sweeping your pool. Use a brush to collect all that sand in one area. Collecting the sand in one area will make vacuuming much easier.

Next, start vacuuming by hooking up a manual pool vacuum. Set the vacuum multi-port valve to “waste” rather than “filter”. This setting pulls water from your pool and sends it out the backwash port, instead of back to your filter, which would send the sand back into the pool.

You’re done!

Compared to other pool issues this is a fairly straightforward one and trust us its one that you will be able to handle on your own. Also, if you’re not already familiar with your sand filter this is a good opportunity for you to get acquainted with it.