Crystal Crete clogging filter

[piratespoint]

Our pool is quite old, 15 years or so and has never been resurfaced. We have a bad black algae problem and I've been doing lots of scrubbing with a wire brush. The upshot is, a lot of very fine crystal crete is making its way into the filter grids and clogging them. The maintenance man says backwashing doesn't help, he has to take the filter apart and clean the grids with a hose. Very inconvenient.
The filter is a DE Pentair Pack Fab 60.

Is it time to resurface the pool?

Any way to keep the filter running without clogging?

Today I plan to stir it up quite a bit and pump about 2000 gallons out as wastewater, hoping to suck out as much of the crystal crete as I can in the process.

Thanks!

 

[jblizzle]

If there is the appropriate amount of DE in the filter, then I would not think that the crystal crete should be clogging anything up.

Resurfacing is generally cosmetic ... up to you if you care what the surface looks and feels like.

 

[piratespoint]

Thanks. How much is the appropriate amount of DE for the filter? A thin coating?

The maintenance guy swears it is the crystal crete clogging the filter.

 

[jblizzle]

What does your filter manual say? Likely 6-7.5 pounds for a 60 sqft filter.

Sure the filter will capture the dust and the pressure will rise, but backwashing should remove it.

 

[piratespoint]

Thanks, I'll give that a try and see what happens.