Filtering Out DE - Lots of DE

[jaysmith2323]

Long story short - we bought a house last year with an inground pool. 17x34 - Hayward DE 48 filter. I have been slowly learning the ins and outs of the pool as the previous owner did not open it for several years.

Upon opening the pool it was green. I got the filter up and running and made the newby mistake of cleaning the filter grids and adding DE without checking for holes. I added 9 scoops of DE and watched as it spilled out into the pool.

I bought all new grids and replaced them - all the other parts are free from cracks.

Today I fired up filter with the new grids and added DE. The PSI in the tank sat at 10 PSI for a short time (few hours) and then quickly went up to about 20 PSI. It seems like I should backwash the system but I am wondering if I should run it with only a partial load of DE for the time being? This way it would have an easier time filtering out all the DE in the water??

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Jason

 

[jaysmith2323]

Just to clarify - at this point the water has been tested by the local pool store and all the attributes are testing in 'normal/ok' ranges. The bottom of the pool has been vacuumed/cleaned several times. The only issue is the water is very cloudy which I am assuming is all the DE that I put into the pool.

 

[WASP]

Perhaps you should backwash then not add any DE since you have plenty in the pool.

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

1. You need to invest in your own test kit. Pool store testing is horrendous and "good range" is meaningless.
2. You should not run the filter with no DE in it, especially if the water is at all green. The easiest clean up would be to just vacuum the DE to waste (or into the filter and just backwash it out). After getting the pool cleaned out, then I would tear down the filter for a full cleaning and start fresh.

 

[jaysmith2323]

Welcome to TFP!!!

1. You need to invest in your own test kit. Pool store testing is horrendous and "good range" is meaningless.
2. You should not run the filter with no DE in it, especially if the water is at all green. The easiest clean up would be to just vacuum the DE to waste (or into the filter and just backwash it out). After getting the pool cleaned out, then I would tear down the filter for a full cleaning and start fresh.

I just got a Leslie test kit delivered today so I will be testing the water soon.

The water is not green anymore - it is a deep aquamarine color.

What about adding just partial DE? I do not want to waste money putting 4-5 scoops in the filter just to backwash it an hour later...

- - - Updated - - -

Perhaps you should backwash then not add any DE since you have plenty in the pool.

This is what I am thinking but I wanted to see if anyone had any experience doing this. I do not want to damage the grids as I just paid for a brand new set.

 

[jblizzle]

If the water is not crystal clear, then running without DE may clog the grids. Just use 75% of so of the normal load.

Are you vacuuming? The DE will settle to the bottom.

 

[jaysmith2323]

If the water is not crystal clear, then running without DE may clog the grids. Just use 75% of so of the normal load.

Are you vacuuming? The DE will settle to the bottom.

I ran the filter for the past 48 hours straight but there was holes in several of the grids which obviously was not catching any of the finer particles (and extra DE). I did this while I was waiting for the new grids to arrive which happened today. I figured even if they were not optimal it was better than nothing. Because of this the water is free from any sizeable debris.

I vacuumed several times over the past few days as well but keep in mind there were holes so most of the DE went right back into the pool (I was not vacuuming to waste).

Since installing the new grids I backwashed the filter - added 1 scoop of DE (instead of 5-6) and within an hour my PSI reading was up 10. I backwashed again (all the water appeared to be whitish/gray) and set it back to filter. I am assuming that this will be my routine for the next 24 hours or so.

 

[jblizzle]

YOu should have added another scoop (at least) of DE after the backwash.