First time poster and pool owner! I bought a house with a pool that has not been used for 3 years and has not been covered. I have a D.E. filter that I pulled and cleaned and then added the media and filtered. The first time took about 30 minutes for the psi to go up 8 from the clean state. Since then I have filtered 3 more times backwash/rinse and reloaded media each time and the time since to filter is time to backwash has gone down to about 15 minutes. All that to ask this... Can I just run on recirculate instead of filter to kill the algee and add my bleach this way and do my tests. Just cleaning the the pump and skimmer basket to keep the recirculating going? Hope this makes sense
To Filter or Recirculate to kill algee (d.e. filter)
- Thread starter brog0418
- Start date
Yes, you could.
But eventually, all those algae carcasses are going to have to be filtered out. So the filter's still going to load up. I could see not wanting to lose that expensive chlorine, though.
Are you possibly overloading the filter with DE? Rule of thumb is 80% of initial fill. I think that's rather heavy, myself, based on how much was stuck to my grids after backwashing - and I didn't have an algae problem!
But eventually, all those algae carcasses are going to have to be filtered out. So the filter's still going to load up. I could see not wanting to lose that expensive chlorine, though.
Are you possibly overloading the filter with DE? Rule of thumb is 80% of initial fill. I think that's rather heavy, myself, based on how much was stuck to my grids after backwashing - and I didn't have an algae problem!
Its just the nature of the beast with DE filters. They filter really well, so they catch a lot of debris and algae blooms create a lot of debris. That means a lot of frequent cleaning. Backwashing is not very effective with DE filters. I think if you open up the filter and examine the grids after your next backwash you will find a lot of DE still in the filter housing. If that is the case with your filter, then you may need to hose off the grids every other backwash to keep the filter working efficiently.
If you have a recirculate setting you can do that until the water is cloudy blue and then start filtering again. You could also vacuum to waste at that stage to get rid of most of the algae debris, then filter as usual.
If you have a recirculate setting you can do that until the water is cloudy blue and then start filtering again. You could also vacuum to waste at that stage to get rid of most of the algae debris, then filter as usual.