These are the steps I have taken for my green pool...

[dukeblanc]

please critique...

background info
bought a new house that came with a pool and had no idea how much work was involved, especially for a newbie... summer 2011... opened the pool and water was beautifully clear... end of the summer, closed the pool, but it was done poorly (never hiring him again)... i live in jersey btw... during the year, the pool cover partially came apart so a lot of debris got in the pool and i foolishly did nothing, mainly out of frustration...

summer 2012, opened pool, shocked it but probably didn't use enough shock... water turned from darkish green to aqua color, but never reaching the clear beautiful water we had last year... i vacuumed once a week and tried to clean the cartridge filter once a week too...

but nothing was getting better... went on amazon and did some research and bought a floatron, which was supposed to get my pool to become clear and kill off the green... but it didn't do anything noticeable..

bought a rover jr robot but the water color did not change... my thought was to help out the filter by getting the robot to clean stuff... and stir up anything the filter couldn't previously reach...

tried cleaning the cartridge filter but couldn't close it properly and water kept on leaking out... forced to turn off the water flow and the filter and decided to buy a new filter, a DE one... bought the EC50, but had to wait about a week to get someone to come install it...

so now pool is green again because it hasn't been moving that much... so went to the pool store and bought two 5 gallon shock and have been leaving the filter on 24/7... water color is pretty good but you can't see the bottom very well, i'm guessing it's dead algae in there?

question
ok, here's my question... so when i turn on the filter, the flow of water into the pool is nice and strong... but after a few hours, maybe 6 or less, the flow becomes very weak... so before i sleep or when i get home/leave work, i turn off the filter and bump the filter 3 times and turn back the filter, and the water flow out is nice and strong again... however, i don't think it should require bumping this frequently... is it time to back wash already? when i cleaned my cartridge filter, i would shut the valve so no water could come in or out of the filter... but when i backwash the DE filter, should i let water come in/out of the filter while backwashing? how do i know when it's done backwashing? and when it's done back washing, just try to close the back wash hole while water is gushing out?

 

[JohnT]

With diry water, it's perfectly normal for a DE filter to require hourly bumping or backwashing.

 

[dukeblanc]

How do you know when back washing is done?

 

[elwood58]

From Pool School:

DE
DE filters come in 2 varieties, the first makes use of a push/pull or multiport valve for the cleaning. With this kind of DE filter, the cleaning procedure is exactly the same as cleaning a sand filter. The only difference is that much of the DE is removed along with the dirt, and therefore you have to add more after cleaning the filter (sand is not removed when backwashing, so doesn't need to be replaced). Because the backwashing doesn't remove all of the DE, only add ~80% of what the filter calls for when new or fully clean so that the filter doesn't clog with clean DE. Once in a while it is necessary to open up a DE filter and do a much more through cleaning. For more detailed information on cleaning DE filters, see this post.

The other kind of DE filter utilizes a handle on top of the filter to shift the internal assembly up and down, or "bump" it. This knocks the DE and dirt off of the filter and down to the bottom, reducing the filter pressure and is known as a "bump filter". To clean a bump DE filter, turn off the pump, open the air valve on the top for about 5 seconds and close it again. Now slowly push the handle down and quickly raise it up 5 times. Restart the pump and check to see that the psi dropped more than 2 psi. If it did, you're all set and you don't need to add any new DE to the filter. If it didn't drop enough, repeat the bumping procedure, remove the plug from the bottom of the filter and run the pump another 30 seconds. Replace the plug, open the air valve on top and run the pump until water is coming out of the air valve. Do this whole process twice and you'll be all set to add ~80% of what the filter calls for when new, just like the other type of DE filter. Once in a while it is necessary to open up the filter and do a much more through cleaning.


The cloudiness of your water is all of that dead stuff floating in it, which the filter is taking out. You are going to need to babysit this process a lot more closely for a few days.

Please read "Pool School" that is linked at the top right of the page you are on now.