after recharging DE - should your pool be cloudy (at all)

[snazzy]

Background

1st and most importantly, thanks to everyone that is on here - I've learned so much from this forum. I've been doing TFP for 3 years and it has been, well, trouble free.

2nd....Although I've been doing the chemical balance thing for so long, today was the first day I tried to disassemble my DE filter to clean it out. My filter is nearly identical to the one on the "how to clean your filter" example. Oh man was it nasty. (and thanks to whomever wrote the tutorial - I couldn't have gotten as far as I did without that!). So, I got the filter open and while the fins were still in the filter I cleaned out as much as I could with the hose based on the advice that it would be heavy with all the DE in there. Reemphasizing it was nasty. I undid the bolts and tried to get off the top manifold off but I couldn't get it to budge. I could wiggle the manifold off of the fins but not off of the stand pipe. So, question #1 - any tips to getting the upper manifold off? (bear in mind I am a 5' tall woman so upper body strength is not my forte). By this time, the filter is actually not nasty any more because I spent maybe an hour cleaning it. Since I couldn't get the filters to budge and my kids were due home from school any minute, I decided to put the thing back together. I had done a visual inspection of the filters and what I could see looked good. So, all done but....

I've noticed that when I reload the filter with DE (not just this time - this happens every time I've back-washed it as well), my hot tub which has the closest outlet to the pump, looks like a cup of milk or so has spilled in the hot tub. Not super cloudy but obviously some DE is making its way into the hot tub. The pool isn't noticeably impacted (but it is a bigger body of water) and the hot tub will clear itself up in time. I just checked and it is clear - I added the DE an hour and a half ago. Anyway, is that normal or does it mean one of my filters has a nick?

Again - any suggestions on getting the manifold disconnected from the stand pipe (without breaking it)?

Thanks!!!

 

[JasonLion]

Unless you forgot to run a rinse cycle that means something is broken. The problem could be a hole in one of the grids, or an o-ring that isn't seating down correctly, or something put together in the wrong place.

 

[zethacat]

Did you make a slurry or did you just pour DE into the skimmer? If the latter, it is possible that some of it made it's way through the filter grid. The other possibility is that one or more of the grids are damaged -- there could either be a tear in one or the elements or a crack somewhere on the manifold but you may need to completely disassemble the filter and closely inspect the parts to make that determination. A little extra wiggling should be all that is needed to get the top manifold off. Maybe give it a few light taps with your fist to see if that loosens it up.

 

[snazzy]

Quick update. I decided to go ahead and try to take it apart again. If finally got the top off the fins by using a hammer and a piece of wood- tapping upwards with the hammer onto the wood so that I didn't damage the plastic bits. It finally gave - whew! Anyway, noticed that most of my fins had small holes in them near the bottom - maybe the size of a pencil head each - but that is where the DE was getting back in my pool. Putting the new fins back together again was "fun" but I'm glad I did the whole process. My pump pressure is low again and no DE is coming into the pool at all. Anyway, thanks all for the help.

One thing I learned in this is that getting the cover off the filter is super easy - I don't think I will ever backwash the way I was doing it before. Which was putting the valve to backwash and running the pump - and repeating with the valve on rinse a few times. It doesn't work as well as just opening the thing up and spraying it down with a hose. I probably won't take the fins all the way out and inspect/clean them individually very often because it is a pain getting them back in but the half way step is worth it to clean out the filter.

Again, thanks to everyone that helped (especially whoever made the walk through on how to approach the filter clean out)

 

[chiefwej]

I backwash first to get rid of most of the DE, then open it up and finish cleaning. That makes it a bit easier to pull the grid pack out.

 

[Divin Dave]

awesome. Its alway great to hear a success story.

Quick update. I decided to go ahead and try to take it apart again. If finally got the top off the fins by using a hammer and a piece of wood- tapping upwards with the hammer onto the wood so that I didn't damage the plastic bits. It finally gave - whew! Anyway, noticed that most of my fins had small holes in them near the bottom - maybe the size of a pencil head each - but that is where the DE was getting back in my pool. Putting the new fins back together again was "fun" but I'm glad I did the whole process. My pump pressure is low again and no DE is coming into the pool at all. Anyway, thanks all for the help.

One thing I learned in this is that getting the cover off the filter is super easy - I don't think I will ever backwash the way I was doing it before. Which was putting the valve to backwash and running the pump - and repeating with the valve on rinse a few times. It doesn't work as well as just opening the thing up and spraying it down with a hose. I probably won't take the fins all the way out and inspect/clean them individually very often because it is a pain getting them back in but the half way step is worth it to clean out the filter.

Again, thanks to everyone that helped (especially whoever made the walk through on how to approach the filter clean out)