Hello i am an owner of a medium-small sized pool and it is a homemade diy style over the ground box.
in the end it does not matter what shape it is , because that just a container to hold water.
last year i was using that consumer grade paper cartridge filter and it wasn’t good enough, i believe 3 of those would have a better chance (i guess it is common mistake to take pump flow and not filter flow into calculations)
this year i decided to buy a sand filter pump, but what i bought was on a sale with no media. the pump and filter is rated for sand to be a bit above my pool capacity, but now i have a dilema of what filter media to buy
i could go sand or glass route, but i could also go filter balls route and i can’t find non biased comparsion
what is the pros and cons of using sand , glass, beads or filter balls in a sand filter enclosure?
what are the water flow and filtration rates of an average product of each type?
For simple ease of use, go with a sand or glass media. Some of the “new” eco friendly marketed products such as the filter balls require you to take the balls out of the tank, rinse off with a hose and put back in, or remove, wash in the washing machine, and put back in the filter. That isn’t nearly as easy as doing a backwash cycle, in our opinion. As to the water flow/filtration rates you’ll need to consult your pump and filter manuals to give you those rates so you can make the calculations.
Good luck with your new filter. Sand filters are by far our favorite filter to use, and we’re advocates of using either sand or glass.